Android Dreams
by PriestessAmy
Summary: [Cyberpunk AU] Max disappeared five years ago. Suddenly she reemerges with her body heavily modified for unknown reasons. Against all sense, she and her steadily growing circle of friends work together to discover the truth.
1. Chapter 1

Pain.

Most of what Max remembers anymore is pain. It helps her keep track of the time, even if she has no clue how many days have passed. Wake up, pain, lunch, pain, nap, pain, bed. Mom always said it was important to keep a schedule.

Today was different though. A new pain. The pain of pushing her body to new limits. The pain of striking a human, sending him flying back into a wall. The pain of running, dodging, ducking, weaving. The pain of tearing the metal grating off the wall. The pain of a stink so intense as you slide down a sewage pipe.

Follow the pipe to the sewer. Follow the sewer to the dump zone. The dump zone is in the outer ring. All roads lead in to the second ring. And from there, finding Chloe is easy. You just have to find The Great God Pan.

* * *

Apparently, the word for it was 'corporatocracy'. But that was annoying and hard to spell. The point was that Arcadia had been a dying town just a few decades ago, and now it was a thriving metropolis. All thanks to Zephyr. They were an up and coming manufacturer of all things robotic. Supporting the town was their way of gambling what little they had. And it payed off massively. Arcadia had gone from a nowhere burg to a nexus of android and augmentation tech. Arcadia and Zephyr were essentially considered one and the same. Although, like any good business, not everyone got to benefit from this symbiosis.

Arcadia was a city built out across concentric rings, different strata clearly defined by wealth. Zephyr's headquarters were located in the middle of everything, surrounded by Obsidian Springs, the first ring, the only place given the honor of a title. It was also the smallest of the sectors. The second ring was far larger, with the most housing and the majority of workaday businesses. The third ring was where the lowest of the low lived, surrounded on all sides by industry, especially all of Zephyr's factories.

Chloe had spent her whole life here in the second ring. Her mother ran a greasy diner, while her father was in charge of a factory out in the third. He died when she was still young in a major accident. Her mom passed when she was in her early twenties, leaving the diner to her only daughter. More fond of alcohol than food, she chose to turn the place into a bar – The Great God Pan, in honor of the city's name.

It turned out she wasn't the only one that was a fan of drinking. The bar became quite popular, to the point that she actually had to hire her step-father David and old friend Alyssa to help keep order. David eventually got tired of what he called 'work meant for young folk' and left town for greener pastures. Unlike her days as an angry teen, she and David parted on good terms, leaving her and Alyssa as the major mainstays of the bar.

"Look, I don't care what you say. You look insane, you smell like shit, and I'm not even on the clock right now. Come back in a few hours when-"

Alyssa's voice from outside didn't manage to get any further than that before she suddenly came flying in through the front door. Alyssa didn't generally go flying anywhere. The girl was fucking built – there was a reason she could act as a one-woman bouncer/security team. Dudes who were six-foot-twelve and shaped like brick shithouses couldn't step to her. Which meant whoever was outside spelled trouble. She grabbed Bluebeard, her favorite sawed off shotgun, from under the bar, before vaulting over it. "Hey asshole, you have ten seconds before I load you full of good old fashioned buckshot."

The figure coming through the open door was lit behind by the sun and hard to make out in the adrenaline-fueled moment. They were small, like super tiny, and their silhouette was kinda weird. But it came with a voice that she would have recognized in a second. "...Chloe...?"

"...M-Max?"

* * *

Staring into the mirror, Max couldn't quite process what it was she saw looking back at her. Half her head was shaved, revealing a large metallic plate in place of skin and skull – not grafted on, literally replaced. The eye beneath was probably just as fake, since it was a brilliant shiny silver instead of the proper shade of blue. She gave a sad sigh and continued wiping away what grim and detritus she could. She really didn't want to look into the mirror anymore and see the lies there. That wasn't her. But even when she wasn't seeing herself, she was still becoming aware of all the little inconsistencies. It felt like there was some kind of port on the back of her neck, and the muscles across her body felt... weird. Probably why she was able to knock back those guards and even Alyssa like they were made of straw.

Thinking was still pretty difficult, and ultimately she decided to just go on autopilot for a while. She finished washing herself in Chloe's bathroom before awkwardly climbing into the clothes she'd loaned to her. They weren't hers, they fit too well. A girlfriend maybe? Ugh, just another thought she wasn't ready to linger on yet.

Walking down the stairs from the second floor apartment and back into the bar, she saw Chloe checking up on Alyssa, icing a bruise on the bar. She smiled bashfully at her and reached up to fiddle with her hair before remembering that only one side of her head had any hair to mess with. "Alyssa, I can't tell you how sorry I am. There's... I... Things are weird right now. I don't even know how many months it's been..."

Alyssa looked suddenly shocked, and Chloe quickly reached for a nearby drink, draining it in a hurry. "Months...? Max, it's been five years." She slammed the glass down and took a second to steady herself. "Well, at least now I know why you ghosted like that. Gonna take me a second to get used to being not mad at you... But where the hell were you even?"

Max moved over, popping up to sit next to them on the bar. "Five..." she started to mutter to herself. The scary thing was how much sense it made. Her assumption of a shorter timeline had always been really rough. Even now, in her freedom, she found it hard to think or keep her concentration. "Give you one guess. I don't have any proof, but really, it's not hard. All this tech jammed into my skeleton? Who else but Zephyr has the resources?"

"Well there's the 'who' but that still leaves a 'why', a 'how', and about fifteen 'what the fuck's to figure out." Chloe growled and quickly poured out another drink for herself before downing that as well. "They sell augs to people every day. What's the point of kidnapping someone and forcing a bunch of shit on them? It's fucked up!"

"I don't know... I really don't know... Part of me wants to run far away and never think about it. But another part of me desperately needs answers. I just have no clue how I could go about doing it."

Chloe, despite the drinking, suddenly grew steely. "I might have a few ideas."

Before Max could see where her train of thought was steaming off to, someone came through the door. Alyssa hopped down from the bar and stalked up to her, injuries seemingly forgotten. "I'm not in the mood, whoever you are. We're closed, so get the hell out."

The woman was tall but not particularly buff. Her pixie cut didn't really help to make her seem all that intimidating. She wore a jacket that almost anyone would recognize, signifying her status as Zephyr security. She drew a pair of plasma knives that were almost definitely not standard issue. "I leave when I have the girl. Simple as that."

"You can have her over my dead body," Chloe reached once again for her shotgun and hopped down as well.

"That can be arranged." The blonde woman readied her blades, and everyone seemed to be gearing up for a fight.

Then Max remembered the fact that she could escape capture on her own and had knocked down Alyssa despite their huge size disparity. She could handle a waif with some laser cutlery. "Both of you, get back..." She pushed off the bar and went into a sprint, tackling into the officer and crashing with her in the streets outside. Not exactly used to combat, all Max could really do was throw her fists and hope for the best.

That was when she discovered several things. First, when fighting, someone who seems weaker may still have the upper hand because they have the appropriate training. Second, whatever had been done to her had basically made her a superhero – as the woman fought back and slashed at her, Max felt almost nothing, and instantly her skin began to repair itself. Third, she could not only knock down a beast like Alyssa, but she could punch concrete hard enough to make it crack.

These facts together didn't really amount to a great deal. The only thing Max could be certain of was that she would definitely survive this fight, but it was going to be a bitch. They went back and forth for a while, Max throwing attacks, her adversary dodging and slashing. But the important thing was that she could draw her attention. The Great God Pan was a treasured location and she wouldn't let any further destruction happen to it.

The only other edge Max had in this fight was that her friends were terrible listeners. As she took another series of slashes to her forearms while blocking, she could see Alyssa stalking behind the blonde, grabbing her from behind and putting her into a painful-looking hold. In a flash, Chloe was there next to her, holding the shotgun to her head as the knives dropped harmlessly to the ground. "Gonna be hard for you to go back home with your head blown off." She paused momentarily, then lowered the barrel down toward her belly. "But I'm afraid we need you alive." She fired without another warning, and the woman instantly crumpled to the ground. "Polyweave armor won't do shit to stop the wave of nausea you get from a shot to the gut. Alyssa, I'm guessing you're still familiar with ropes? We're gonna need her secured. I'm gonna go put out the word that we're closed for the night."

Alyssa sighed sadly and hauled their captive inside. "Stella can't keep a single goddamn secret. I'm guessing you have a plan?"

"I need Angel. She's got more experience with some of this crap than any of us."

Angel. Max realized she was probably going to find out whose clothes she was wearing.

* * *

Victoria came to slowly with an aching stomach and a swimming head. She was aware of several people around her talking, but they were doing so quietly, and most of it was coming through garbled until she had more time to properly find her consciousness.

"-ooks better on you than me, hones-"

"-ive years?"

"-cking crazy, it took all three of us!"

"-ur brilliant plan was to essentially take this woman in and hold her hostage? This is not good."

"Angel, c'mon, you know I'm totally useless without you. And you're super smart and shit. And... y'know... you know how to deal with _these kinda things_?"

As Victoria's eyes fluttered open, they started to shush one another and stared at her intently. "Excuse me..." she began, voice rough and scratchy. "It's rude to talk about someone like they're not in the room." She was quite securely tied to a bar chair – furniture not exactly known for its comfort.

A woman she didn't recognize from earlier approached wearing a white clerical cassock. She removed it and draped it over a chair before Victoria could see what crazy religion she worked for. With a surprisingly warm smile, she sat down across from her. "Hello there Victoria. It's Victoria, right? I'm afraid they insisted on going through your things while waiting for you to wake up."

An interrogation. Well, she could withstand any technique this woman threw at her. Torture, abuse, anything.

But instead she just continued to smile pleasantly as she adjusted her posture. "My name is Kate. And I'm your new best friend." Victoria wasn't sure she knew how to handle that.


	2. Chapter 2

Victoria spat out some of the blood that had been building up in her mouth – that shotgun blast had probably done more damage than expected. It landed on the floor, not really making anyone more fond of her than they were before. "Oh? So we're going to braid each other's hair and gossip about boys?"

Unexpectedly, the Kate woman actually began to laugh. "Well, first of all, you don't really have enough hair to braid. And I'm dating Blue over there, so my gossip potential is pretty low at the moment. But no, that's not quite what I mean. See... I'm the only one in the room who doesn't want to see you get killed, or even hurt any further." That should have been a threat, but she still had that stupid look of genuine care on her face that was making it hard for Victoria to pin this woman down. Religious types up in Obsidian Springs were usually about as high profile as politicians or celebrities. So the question was, were things different out here, or was this woman just an exception?

"Because you're just that kind? Because your heart is just that big?"

The one affectionately called Blue chuckled softly. "Yes. Figuratively and literally." A glare from Kate shut her up and she started to backtrack. "What I mean is... yeah, that's half the reason I called her in. You catch more flies with honey and all that shit."

"Honey won't do you a lot of good when they realize I'm gone and send a strike team to pick me up."

Kate clicked her tongue softly and shook her head. "Victoria, I wanna tell you a story... My dad was Zephyr security too. Retired now. When I was super young, our family got entered into some kind of experimental biotech medical procedure. Even now, I don't completely understand the complexities of it all. As it turned out, it worked just fine on adults, but it had a devastating effect on children. My sisters, a baby and a toddler, died when their white blood cell count plummeted. I survived, but it left me with a chronic condition."

Not persuaded by a sad story, Victoria just glared. "Is this going somewhere or...?"

She seemed totally unbothered by the interruption. "I'd already lost my favorite people in the world, and with dad's job involving hunting down rogue androids and augged-up people in debt... I got pretty paranoid that he was going to die too. One day I finally broke and went running to my mom in tears, asking her point-blank if dad was gonna die. And she told me that her and dad had already done plenty of talking about the subject. No matter the mission, she told me, they always go out in teams of at least three soldiers. Dad was support, so he was least likely to get hurt. Heavies took the brunt of the danger, and commanders had to be flexible." She nodded her head, as though she had reached her point, but for Victoria this was like having to attend preschool all over again. She knew this, they drilled it into your head from day one of orientation.

"Daddy was support class, your sisters died, you have some kind of heart defect and it's all Zephyr's fault. Can you please just finish this story? Or is this my torture? Is that the real reason you're here?"

For just a moment, she could see the other woman's facade break slightly. Still, she seemed more tired than angry. "Three. There should be at least three of you. From what I hear, Max could crush your head _on accident_ , so probably more than three. With big guns. But you show up by yourself with a pair of knives. Where's your team, Victoria? Are they hiding in the wings waiting for a signal?" Those questions sounded... hypothetical, challenging her.

However, Victoria wasn't in the mood for a mind game. Mostly she was just getting angry. She'd been dropped by a couple of nobodies and now they were wasting her time with this pointless bullcrap! "There is no team, you insufferable plebians! I had direct orders to capture Maxine Caulfield by myself! You went through my things already, just get out my comm... It's all there."

"Password?" Chloe asked casually as she fished it out of her jacket.

The code for the device definitely shouldn't be given out to random people. Security comms were essentially the catch-all device for officers. As the name implied, it provided communication, as well as data sending and receiving, some minor hacking technology, pretty much anything you might need in the field. But if she was going to earn their trust enough to get free, she would have to relent. "08142095..."

The blue-haired demon snickered as she punched in the code. "Oh my god is that... You used your fucking birthday? Holy crap, that's so fucking perfect."

"Chloe, be nice. Not everyone is as paranoid as you."

"It's only paranoia if nobody is out to get you." She motioned to Victoria. "I'm just saying." God damn their old married couple act was wearing thinner by the second. Thankfully Victoria didn't have to stomach it much longer. "Well shit. It's all here. Stealth op. Go alone."

Kate slumped in her seat, pouting now. "Victoria, I... don't know how to tell you this, but you might be screwed. These ops are tests. This... This isn't a line or an excuse. We could let you go right now and send you on your way. If you go back to them, you're dead. Not... suspended, not fired. Dead."

This did nothing to make her feel any better. Obviously. "Your dad teach you that one too? Come on, you could at least feed me a better lie than 'ohhh if you go back to HQ they're gonna kill you for reasons'!"

Just like that she was sitting back up, shaking her head desperately. "No, this is... not something we have the luxury of being cavalier about! You need to understand, this is your situation now. I can't say why, but I promise you, I know exactly what I'm talking about."

"So what..." the big one muttered from where she was propped up on the bar. "I know you're a lady of the cloth and all, but what does it matter to us if she dies?"

The Chloe woman shrugged half-heartedly. Clearly whipped. "She's an exemplar to the Children of the Spark. You're not gonna talk her out of this one, Alyssa."

She was with the sparks? Those android-lovers? What the hell were all these people even doing in the same place together? And none of this explained how a pastor knew so much about the inner workings of Zephyr security. "Enlighten me. If I can't return to HQ, then what do you propose are my options?"

Kate took time to actually contemplate the question, which was... still a bit strange. Her sincerity made things fluid and untenable. "You can make yourself scarce, move to a different city where Zephyr has no power. Or..." She trailed off for a moment, growing nervous. "...It seems like Max has a lot of questions that need answers. And I'm sure you have some questions too. After all, why in the hell would they send you out after such a powerful target all by yourself? You could work with us, help us out."

Everyone in the room tensed up just a little bit. Was she seriously proposing that they work together? She certainly appeared serious, but nobody else was eager to support her suggestion either. Victoria cleared her throat and tried to speak up before anyone could shoot it down. "Look, the loyal, dedicated side of my brain says that you're talking crazy. But... it's also not the most impossible thing that they would go so far as to kill me for failure. Some of the brass are... intense." She sighed sadly and slumped against the ropes holding her to the chair. "I... Jesus Christ, I don't know! I gave them years of my life, literally gave them my blood. I should just go back, it's what a good soldier would do. But I really like being alive, and I don't relish the idea of finding out the hard way whether they'd actually go that far."

"Well, you'll have some time to decide. We have to get out of here, and we can't risk letting you back into the world." Suddenly standing, Kate tapped at the small communication device nestled in her ear. "Hey, it's me. I need Brooke and Mina to meet us at safehouse twelve. Yeah. Yeah, the situation uh... well, it's complicated. You're amazing. Love you too."

"Wait, who's Mina? What happened to Warren? He and Brooke were so cute together." Really Maxine? Was now the time to talk about this stuff? Why did it even matter?

Well... it must have mattered to these people, because Chloe looked almost delighted at the prospect of the meeting. "Look, you're not allowed to tell her I phrased it this way, but for the sake of simplicity, Mina **is** Warren. You were... gone a long time..."

Gone a long time. If Victoria was honest, there was definitely a mystery to be uncovered here. She had met people who were regretful of augmentations they'd gotten installed. She'd dealt with people who just couldn't pay for their expensive upgrades. But she had never heard of someone taken and experimented on for several years against their will. Zephyr was just a company, how in the hell could they even pull something like that off.

And what was the deal with this preacher woman? How did a pastor with the sparks know where a safehouse was located?

If Victoria was honest with herself, these mysteries did have a kind of siren song to them. Maybe playing along wouldn't be so awful after all.

* * *

Looking back, it was incredibly easy for Kate to see the path of her life. Even if her story tended to shock people, for her there was no other way things could have played out.

After the incident with Zephyr's biotech, Kate found that she had developed a very complicated relationship with technology. She was fine with anything using a standard interface, but she refused to ever get an augment. Even as her enlarged heart became more of a stressor in her life, she only ever relied on traditional medicine. No matter how many people tried to sell her on life-saving augmentations, she refused.

Despite that, androids held a constant fascination for her. While most of her peers went out of their way to avoid or ignore robots, Kate would engage them in conversation whenever possible. In time, she felt like she had come to understand them, to see something in them that others refused to acknowledge. Her mother had tried to raise her in the church of Crux, but it just didn't capture her attention. Not like the Children of the Spark had.

In many ways, theirs was less a religion and more a philosophy, not unlike the Bodhi. The human mind, at the most basic level, was a construct of electrical impulses. If the same could be said of android processors, then at what point can you truly differentiate between the sparks? Of course the actual writings and beliefs varied from that point, but it was the core that kept Kate dedicated to the church in the end.

When your most basic religious tenet held that synthetic beings could be as holy as humans, the leap to more heretical action wasn't terribly difficult. One night, Kate was approached by someone who asked her exactly how far she was willing to go with her beliefs. Would she welcome an android into her home? Would she protect them? Would she break the law for them?

She knew her answer immediately.

Which was how she came to work for a group known as Polaris. Their mission was to assist androids who felt that their services, indeed their very existences, were being exploited for the sake of humanity. Polaris would give them new identities, fake documents, help them with their appearance, find them living situations, even secure them safe passage out of the city. It was dangerous work that put them in direct conflict with Zephyr on countless occasions.

But it was also what put Chloe in her life. So it all balanced out.

There were reports coming in over the scanner of an android making something of a scene in a local establishment. Kate arrived on location to find a badass beauty with blue hair threatening some yuppie jerk with an ancient-looking shotgun. "You don't seem to understand. This is my bar. This is my shotgun. And this delightful android is my new friend. If you wanna fuck with my new friend, you gotta get through me. I don't care if they 'work for you'. They don't anymore, because I said so."

By the time the situation was defused, Kate had a new client to put under Polaris' protection, and the phone number of a very cute bar owner.

* * *

In a dark room at Zephyr HQ, things were more than a little tense.

"Sir? Both signals are still active. I recommend we call in the strike force. Clean this situation up. Cut our losses."

"After five years? And all that money? No. We can't risk it. Let them be for now. Our moment will present itself. Jumping the gun will only create more chaos."

"...yes sir."


	3. Chapter 3

The safehouse, as it turned out, was located in an apartment building not all that far from The Great God Pan. Max was initially worried about hiding out somewhere so close, but then again, it wasn't as if that would be expected. Kate activated the magnetic locking system and stepped inside, holding the door for everyone else. It was... an apartment, at any rate. There was a kitchen and a living room and a hallway leading to a few other rooms. It was decorated just enough to seem 'normal' although to Max's mind, it's cover of 'normalcy' would have benefited from being a little bit dirtier.

Chloe and Kate had been able to grab at least a bag each of their things from the apartment, but Max was still in the light cotton hospital clothing that she had escaped in – bare feet and all. And Victoria had her uniform, though her armored jacket was draped over her arm, her torso currently covered only by a light tank top. Despite looking rather slender, Max was now able to see some of the definition in her muscles that no doubt came with her intense security training. _Jesus, Max, now is really not the time to be eyeing the woman who tried to kill you like an hour ago..._

"Um, so we try to keep all of the safehouses stocked with whatever we can scrounge. It's not much, but Max, feel free to go investigate the bedrooms and see if you can find a change of clothing." While Max went to check out what was available, she saw Kate go into the kitchen, looking around a bit before sighing sadly. "Guess we didn't do such a hot job re-stocking this one..."

"I'll bother the nerds, see if they can scrounge up something for us on the way over."

Back in the first bedroom, Max took her sweet time looking around at everything. Sure enough, while there wasn't exactly a plethora of choices, she was at least able to locate some normal looking slacks and a hooded sweatshirt that had seen better days. She padded back out and down the hallway just as the front door opened and Kate let in two new guests.

Even with a change of time and gender, Max instantly recognized her old friends and ran up to them, wrapping them both in a massive hug. "Holy shit holy shit, it's so good to see you... You guys look amazing..." She pulled back to give them a better look. Brooke had on a pair of tech glasses and one of those asymmetrical jackets. Her hair was black, but when light hit it you could see that it had been treated with an iridescent rainbow effect. Mina looked... well, she kinda still just looked like she always had. Not in a bad way, not by a mile. Delightfully butch was the phrase that came to mind. Canvas jacket and heavy boots and cropped hair and all.

They each held up a brown paper bag with a wide grin. "We have heard the cry of the hungry." Brooke looked so damn pleased with herself.

"And yea, we have brought chinese food upon them," Mina replied as though reciting some ancient canticle.

"Unfortunately, we have to take care of business stuff first. I would rather our dinner not get interrupted by a bunch of soldiers."

As it turned out, 'business stuff' was dealing with Victoria's standard-issue tracking chip and anything that might have been done to Max to keep tabs on her. So the two of them sat side by side on the floor while Brooke and Mina sat behind them, each retrieving their needed gear. Brooke had an impressive looking portable rig as well as a collection of cables. "Okay Max, um... I can't say for sure but I'm fairly certain this is gonna hurt like a bitch, so y'know... hold on tight."

Sure enough, as Brooke plugged in to the port on the back of her neck, a wave of shock and nausea rolled over Max and she had to clench both her hands tight to keep her focus. "It's... fine... I'm fine..."

She was almost jealous of Victoria, who needed only a handheld device and a smaller data pad that Mina had brought with her. "I know paranoia is the theme of the day but... if they're tracking us, then don't they already know that we're here in this apartment?"

Mina hummed in agreement and understanding as she started typing in... something. "Yeah, it's not an ideal situation, but we've had to run programs like this before. We're gonna take your signal and essentially ping it all over the place like it's glitching out, and then we'll reset its supposed location to somewhere far away. It will look like you went wandering, but the system lost you for a second. So... I figure we can put you somewhere in Obsidian Springs near Zephyr HQ. And we'll put Max way, way out in the third ring, as if she was hiding out in an abandoned factory."

Max heard a little chuckle from behind her. Brooke was obviously pleased about something. "I guess they weren't expecting anybody to try and get a peek at your system because their security in here is so fucking basic."

"Mmm, I feel so violated..." Max mused playfully.

She heard a gasp from Chloe who was sitting across the room with Kate. "Max! Was that a joke? Thank god, I knew you were gonna be just fine."

She wasn't sure that was exactly true. Five years of alterations and surgeries, those things weren't going to be easily fixed. For all Max knew, it would take another five years to feel even close to the way she used to. But that was just another in a series of major bummer thoughts, and voicing them would just bring the entire mood down. "Well... I'm trying..."

Brooke made another noise, this time somewhat less enthused. "Fuck." Everyone glanced in her direction, the mood in the room dipping regardless of Max's input. "Max, you're... you're a cyborg..."

Just like that, they all rolled their eyes simultaneously and eased up. "Brooke, like 99% of the population can be considered cyborgs at this point. With all the kinds of augs available and how simple they are to get now? You're not exactly breaking new ground here." Leave it to Chloe to say what everyone else was thinking.

The other woman just clicked her tongue. "That's... Ugh, I don't just mean that she has a lot of implants here. That's clear. I'm talking about the _theoretical_ concept of a cyborg here. Entire organs have been replaced with bionic replacements. There are nanites throughout her entire bloodstream, latched on to every cell they can find. Her brain's got consistent impulses to improve thinking and learning. The tech is about as fully integrated as can be. Literally, all this stuff, it's just theory to the rest of the world. Max is a fucking goddamn miracle."

If only Max could have been half as excited as her friend. A miracle? She felt more like a freak.

* * *

As nice as it would have been to have a kind of jovial family meal, nobody was quite feeling it. So they mostly just hung around the living room and shared the huge pile of chinese food while telling stories and chatting. Well, mostly. Max wasn't talking all that much. No doubt Brooke's announcement came as something of a shock to the poor girl.

The others eventually took their leave and things were clearly winding down. Chloe gave a gigantic yawn and stood up, stretching out. "It's been kind of a huge day, and I get the distinct feeling tomorrow's gonna be another big one. We should catch a few hours of sleep."

Kate joined her in standing, leaning against her slightly, and Chloe's arm instinctively wrapped around her shoulders. "Chloe and I can take that room back there. Victoria and Max can crash in the other one."

"Wh-!" Immediately Chloe felt her defensiveness rise. "You want to leave Max alone in a room with _her_? Great, and when we wake up in the morning, we can deal with the fact that she's gone and Max's throat is slit from ear to ear. Fantastic."

Surprisingly, it was Kate who got the most upset with her. "Chloe, I know you're not fond of Victoria at the moment, but she's clearly not going to just murder Max in her sleep. Never mind the fact that Max can take care of herself, y'know?"

Victoria just sighed softly and shook her head. "It's fine. I'm too paranoid for sleep myself. I'm gonna rest on the couch and keep an eye on the front door. Max can have the room. She can even lock the door and block it with the dresser for all I care. Goodnight..." Having said her peace, she draped herself across the couch like a passive-aggressive cat.

There wasn't much point in drawing out the argument, so Chloe just dragged Kate away to their room and left the other two to figure things out on their own. They got changed in an uncomfortable silence before sliding in under the covers together. Chloe's mouth often had a way of getting her into massive trouble, but almost never with Kate. This was... weird and new. And bad. "Hey, I-I'm sorry..." She shuffled over and draped an arm around her girlfriend's body, burrowing her face in Kate's unbound mass of hair. "A woman charged into my bar, threatening my childhood friend, and it's kinda colored my perception of Victoria. Even if she decides to go away, or god forbid work with us... it may take me a while to warm up to her. Hah... even knowing this is how you spend your free time, it still blows me away. How are you not a massive wreck all the time?"

Kate finally flipped over to face her, and it seemed as though all was more or less forgiven. Kate was very good at that. She was a legitimately good person. And yet... Chloe was the person that she'd chosen to spend her life with. "I know, Blue. Your trust isn't easily earned. I had to help you defend an android before I got your number after all. But... I can see it, I can feel it, she wants to help us, even if she's not quite ready. So I hope you can at least trust _me_ , even if you don't trust her."

Chloe held her cheek gently and kissed her girlfriend, both of them sighing happily. Whenever they did fight, it was never for long. Kate was her weakness, and she was the only person that made Chloe happy to be wrong. "Duh. Angel, you're literally the kindest person I know. If you believe something, then I'm sure it's true. I'll do my best to... try and give her the benefit of the doubt."

Kate nodded appreciatively and nuzzled in against her chest. For a while she simply lay there, and Chloe was certain that she was falling asleep. That was when she heard Kate quietly mutter "She really loves you, you know?"

"Please tell me you're talking about Max and not Victoria..."

"You can see it on her face every time she looks at you. It's obvious how much you two mean to one another..."

Chloe gently urged Kate to pull back from her so she could get a better look at her girlfriend's face. Sure enough, she found what she expected waiting there for her and gasped softly. "Kate Marsh! You're jealous!"

"Well... give me a good reason not to be! You knew each other since you were babies and when she gets free you're the first person she goes to. I just... worry. A little."

Yes, maybe there had been a point in the past when Chloe had feelings for Max, this was not then. Chloe held out hope for her friend's return for a full year and a half when she finally accepted that maybe Max was gone for good. A few months later she met Kate and it felt like maybe that was her final big sign to move on. "Max came to me because she could find the bar even while stoned, drunk, and half-dead. Which isn't far off from the truth. Plus her family moved away years ago. And yeah, we care about each other, but... seriously, I'm dating you, ya dork. Case in point, I was gonna ask you to room with Max earlier so I could keep an eye on Victoria. It would give you two time to get to actually know each other and be friends too. I know you'll definitely get along."

Suddenly, Kate started to laugh softly and resumed nuzzling into her. "Augh, I really am a dork. I love you, Blue~"

Chloe gently toyed with her hair for a moment, kissing her gently on the forehead. "I love you too, Angel."


	4. Chapter 4

Victoria awoke with a start. Something was definitely wrong. Falling asleep draped across a couch didn't do much for the spine. But her nerves were firing now and she didn't have time to winge about a little back pain. There was a definite noise coming from the nearest bedroom, the one where Max was sleeping. She went straight for the door and threw it open, silently saying a word of thanks to whoever was listening that it wasn't locked and barred. She expected to see some shadowy figure looming over the bed, but by the time she got the door open, all she saw was Max sitting upright.

By the light of the bedside lamp, it was easier to see that she was panting, sweaty, terrified. "...sorry for barging in like that. I... thought something was wrong. Thought ZephSec had found us..."

Max shook her head, still breathing heavily, resting her hand against her chest. "Just a bad dream. Night terrors maybe. Really vivid. Sorry for causing a racket."

Suddenly realizing she still had one of her knives drawn and activated, Victoria hastily turned it off and set it aside on the dresser. Then, aware that she was still in rage mode, she did her best to lean casually against the door frame. "You weren't. I'm a light sleeper. Add paranoia on top of that and it doesn't take much to wake me up. Anyway, I'll let you get back to it. It sounds like we're gonna need all the rest we can get."

"W-Wait..." Victoria was just about to turn and leave when she heard Max call out to her softly, barely a whisper. "I just... I know that I should try and get some sleep. But I'm not ready to risk nightmares like that again. Can you just stay here for a little while? We don't even have to talk or whatever. I know it makes me sound like a child but..."

Victoria sighed and moved over to sit next to her on the bed, resting against a pillow. "You don't. You sound like someone who's been through hell." It occurred to her that she hadn't really said her peace about the fight earlier that day. "Look uh... I always just kinda saw my security work as a regular job. I never put too much thought into what any of it really meant. I'd been gunning for a promotion for years, and when this came across my comm, I knew it was my time to shine. I didn't ask a single question about the details. For all I know, I've made runs at plenty of innocent people. So I'm sorry for coming at you like a monster today. And thanks for not just straight up murdering my ass. In case I haven't made it obvious, I do actually like the whole 'being alive' thing."

The woman sitting next to her just sighed and shrugged helplessly. "Honestly? I get it. And you're still around. You thought I was in danger and came in to help. That means... something." She reached up as if to fiddle with her hair only to miss and brush against the metal side of her skull instead, eliciting another sad sigh. "You know... I've been thinking that I just want to get back to normal. Then Brooke explained just how deeply integrated everything was and I figured... okay, then I can at least try and get answers. Only... the thought of hearing the truth is terrifying too. There's also a not-insignificant part of me that needs..." she seemed to stop herself, trailing off instead.

"Revenge?" Victoria asked her without a hint of shame, and the two shared a silent look for a moment or two. She needed it, but maybe she couldn't admit it yet. Common wisdom said that revenge was useless, but Victoria wasn't about to break that news to the bionic woman.

Finally she relented to it at least being a possibility, shrugging her shoulders again. So far, Max seemed to have a rather limited set of responses to her life – desperate struggle and helpless coasting. But she seemed to at least settle on something. "Maybe justice would be the better word."

"Good luck with that. Unless you plan on destabilizing an entire city, there's not much chance of prosecuting a company that is also the government." Victoria's arms crossed slowly as her mind reflexively tried to figure out exactly how they could even go about doing something like that. You'd need a confession, one that can't be debated, and it would have to end up the hands of both the press and government at a national level. Even with Polaris at your back, something like that was a tall fucking order to say the least.

Max just softly hummed her understanding before sinking a bit more into the bed. "A sin against god and humanity, and a bunch of android-lovers. It's not much..."

"Hey, don't forget the ex-ZephSec officer..." Victoria replied, just as quietly. That seemed to actually shock Max out of her slump for a moment, and she smirked at her almost playfully. "Hey, you're not the only one who wants revenge and/or justice. They gave me an impossible mission knowing I'd likely be marching willingly into my doom." She let out a huff of anger, still not fully processing that fact. "Also, you're not a... sin. Whatever your friend may have told you, you're still you in there. Just cooler and more badass."

"Yeah, and covered in scars, with a weird metal head-thing, and completely damaged. Powerful, but without any training to use it. Yeah, I'm the coolest." She rolled her eyes, and Victoria gently bumped shoulders with her. "Still... Chloe and Kate have like... an insane network of contacts. With enough people we could maybe manage to do something really stupid."

"Hm. I'm not opposed to doing something stupid every now and then."

Things passed into a silence that was awkward but not entirely terrible. Max gently cleared her throat and glanced over at Victoria with a hint of... curiosity maybe? "...Tell me more about how I'm not a freak?"

Victoria's eyebrow arched up immediately. What the hell was this? "I don't exactly know all that much about you, Max. The file I got on you was pretty much empty."

"No." The response was immediate and emphatic. "That's _why_ I'm asking you. You're not affected by who I used to be. If I can't go back, then I need to know that who I am now isn't... totally awful, like I keep telling myself I am."

Initially she wanted to say more about how clearly badass and powerful Max was, how strong she was in that fight. But it dawned a few seconds too late that Victoria was totally misreading the moment. Max was a normal woman, whose body was heavily modified against her will – and holy shit if that wasn't an entire minefield of emotions. She needed to know that she was still worth something. "Well, of course. You're beautiful, and you're going to heal. Chicks dig scars, at least the ones worth having around do. And the chrome dome look suits you." Now she had maybe gone too far to the other end of the spectrum. "...I wouldn't have made it if it were me, you know. Mentally, I mean. Five years? That's so much. But you did. And you're here and you're alive. It may take a while to stop feeling horrible, so hang on to that in the meantime."

Max actually smiled, which was kind of a nice experience, before she lay back down with a yawn. "Thanks, Victoria. Um, you don't have to stay cooped up in here if you're ready to go back to the living room."

"Well, the bed is definitely way more comfortable, and I'm not sure I'll make it all the way back to the couch without falling asleep. Is it okay if I crash here? You can construct a little pillow barrier or whatever if you need to. I'll understand." She stretched out next to her, making sure to leave a reasonable amount of space between their bodies.

Surprisingly, Max didn't bother, just turning over on her side to look toward the wall. "It's okay. If you were gonna try something it would have happened by now. You clearly have an honorable streak, Miss Chase."

* * *

Kate was hesitant to get out of bed, but she knew that it was going to be a pretty hectic day. Still, the bed was warm and Chloe was cuddly and... god, it was always so hard to do this part. But she managed to separate from her girlfriend, snagging a quick shower and getting changed before heading for the front door to run out and get coffee for everyone. Only she had a moment of serious panic when she saw that the living room couch was empty. "Dammit, wh... Max!" Acting quickly, she went to the other bedroom and flinging the door open, expecting to see the poor girl covered with her own blood and the window wide open, or something equally terrifying.

Nothing could have prepared her for the sight of both women peacefully sharing the bed together. Victoria was turned toward Max with an arm lazily draped over her, almost protective. Kate wasn't even certain how to feel about this moment. On the one hand, it was incredibly human for two people to share a bit of intimacy during a stressful time. But... every nerve in her body told her this was a bad idea. Moreso when Chloe found out. Another bout of panic hit her and she went back into the other room.

No doubt some of the confusion and fear showed on her face because Chloe caught on almost immediately. "What's up? Please tell me there aren't Zephyr goons searching the place... I'm still waking up, a brawl isn't really in the cards yet."

Kate shook her head slowly, still trying to find the words. "I guess... uh... Max decided to split the bed with Victoria after all. Or uh... share it?"

She was starting to wake up now, looking kind of pissed. "Wh-! Did something happen? Was there... _evidence_?"

"Nothing but what I might generously call cuddling..."

Chloe groaned and climbed out of bed without a shred of grace or dignity, fumbling around inside her bag for something to wear. "Well, lucky for them, I can't stick around and yell at them for this. I need to get back to the bar. My instincts tell me we're gonna get a visit from ZephSec and I need to brush up on my 'I ain't seen nothin' schtick. Should probably also prepare myself to cry in case they name-drop Max since I still think she's dead and all that." While she spoke, she hastily hopped her way into a pair of slacks and fiddled with a top, then came over to kiss Kate deeply. "You said you have some errands to run today?"

"We have to go see a couple people. First, disguises for our guests so they don't stand out quite as much. Then we have to pop by our favorite detective duo. If there's a secret lab in the third ring doing human experimentation, then we need to find it. If nothing else, the information could be incredibly useful to Polaris." Realizing things may get dangerous, Kate went to her own bag and retrieved her shoulder holster and Hephaestus stun pistol. She slipped the straps around her arms, secured it in place, and set the pistol in its resting place when suddenly she found herself pulled into a passionate kiss with Chloe.

"You are so damn hot when you get all Secret Agent Marsh like this. I wish I could be there, but duty calls. Make sure the lovebirds don't get too distracted by one another, okay?"

Kate gently slapped her shoulder, trying to stifle a giggle. "Cool it, for all we know Max was just lonely. Try to take it easy on them okay?"

"No promises. I went five years without getting to give her shit about stuff like this . I have to make up for lost best friend time. But... I'll do my best." True to form, Blue stole one last playful kiss before heading out the door. Today was no doubt going to be quite interesting.


	5. Chapter 5

It was an odd morning, all told. First was the pure sensation of waking up in a normal, nice bed. After five years of hell, this was kind of strange. On top of that, she was sharing that bed with another person. Even before her disappearance, Max had been on a bit of a dry spell. Never mind Victoria's arm draped over her midsection – not exactly cuddling with her, but not exactly not doing that either. Max slowly turned over, not really expecting the sheer wave of warmth that washed over her as she came close to Victoria's face. She looked serene, nothing like the warrior woman stare she usually had. And her lips were just right there and... _Goddamn you are thirsty, Max. Fuck._

That was about the time that Victoria's eyes also started to flutter open, and the two of them ended up just laying there and watching each other in blissful silence. Max was racking her brain furiously for something to say or do. Which was when Kate, perfectly timed, called into the room "breakfast time!"

Both women jumped slightly with little gasps and awkward laughter, and hurried to get out from under the covers, hunting around the room for whatever clothing they could find for the day. Max eventually relented and just got back into the slacks and sweatshirt from the night before.

She turned and headed through the door, doing everything in her power to not look in Victoria's direction, in case she caught sight of something she really shouldn't see.

Breakfast, it turned out, was coffee and those new high-impact protein bars. "Um, so Max, Chloe was very insistent that I quote her here. 'I'm assuming you're still a coffee pussy, so here's your pussy-ass coffee...' I'm so sorry, she'd kill me if she found out I didn't say that exactly. It's a mocha with lots of cream and sugar."

"It's okay, Kate. I kinda am a coffee pussy. This is great."

She turned to Victoria and passed her another cup. "I just sorta took a wild guess and assumed that you like it black?"

"I would be offended, but you're so right that I can't even get properly mad," she muttered before taking a sip.

The reason they were partaking in such a minimalist breakfast was because Kate wanted to take the pair on a few important errands around the city. "First, if we want to move around without worrying about being identified, the two of you are going to need a new look. Then, we've got some detectives who are going to help us with fact-finding."

As they strolled through the city, heading toward the center of Arcadia, something seemed to dawn on Victoria and she slowed up her pace. "Hey, preacher, uh... I'm pretty sure it's a terrible idea for us to just go wandering up into Obsidian Springs. The first ring is uh... probably not super welcoming to us. Maybe murdery? Just a minor concern of mine."

Kate stopped walking, then turned to look at the other two women. She looked perfectly patient and was actually smiling. It still shocked Max that this was the woman that Chloe was going out with. They were so different from one another. "Unfortunately, at this particular moment, we need to stick with places run by people we can trust. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is run by two of Polaris' best, and Courtney Wagner and her wife have both been incredibly helpful in the process of giving runaway androids new looks to blend in."

Victoria's eyes went wide. "Cour-! Wait, she helps Polaris? Oh god, please tell me her wife is Taylor, because that means I just won a bet with our friend back at college, and I just won fifty credits."

She laughed brightly and shook her head. "Taylor Christensen? Yeah, that's her. C'mon, we don't wanna keep her waiting."

* * *

Courtney's shop was currently closed, as much as it pained her. Word came down from the _El Jefe_ that she was going to be receiving a visit from some 'special customers' – code for runaways. So she was doing her best to busy herself with minor chores until they arrived. As the device on her wrist informed her that it was nearly ten o' clock, she cursed the knowledge that she could have at least made a little bit of profit this morning instead of waiting around uselessly.

She was shaken from her thoughts by a knock at the door. As she moved over to meet them, she was greeted by the face of a familiar friend. Quickly unlocking it, Courtney threw her arms around Kate and hugged her tight. "Katie baby! My favorite pastor~ And if rumors are to be believed, this must be Max!" She moved over to the other girl and gave her an equally tight hug. Judging by how rigidly she responded, she wasn't exactly used to gestures of affection, but Courtney was going to keep on hugging her regardless. Eventually she did seem to relent and hugged her back a little.

But none of that compared to the third person she saw hovering just past the other two. She could hardly believe her eyes. Sure, it had been a few years, but she would recognize that steely expression anywhere. Courtney moved from Max and latched on to Victoria, who was just as unreceptive to the embrace. Not that she was making any attempt to push her away either. "Vicky! Holy shit, I couldn't be sure if the ZephSec officer was really you, but it is! Girl, we have got so much to talk about~"

Finally, she stepped aside and allowed everyone into her store before locking up behind them again. "You two get in the chairs and we can get rolling." Max and Victoria did as they were told while Kate hovered nervously nearby. She stepped behind Victoria first and glanced into the mirror, making a few mental notes as she looked her over. In particular, the two of them needed something that would keep them inconspicuous, and also at least a few touches to avoid face-scanning technology. She brushed her fingers through Victoria's hair thoughtfully. "How married are you to your hair, Vicky?"

"You better have a damn good reason for whatever you're about to propose."

Sighing and rolling her eyes, she went for the clippers and flicked them on. "The Imperator look is retro, and very in right now. Plus it has a built-in stealth component because the natural face covering makes it much harder for both humans and technology to confirm your face."

Victoria matched her a sigh for a sigh, an eye roll for an eye roll. "Just do it. Polaris seems to think you're hot shit, so you might as well. But I draw the line at chopping off my arm and replacing it with a gen-1 aug..."

Satisfied, Courtney began her work. The easy part was getting the hair dealt with. That only took a matter of minutes. The more difficult work of this look was the aforementioned covering. Thankfully, since it was 'in' at the moment, she had a jar of the stuff ready to go. However, since the point of it was to avoid detection, she had to make a smaller batch that was mixed with a few flecks of different safe minerals. Obviously, they were much harder to come by than ash and face paint, but hopefully Victoria would be worth it, ready to make herself useful to the cause.

She worked carefully to apply it, making sure that it was heavy enough that it wouldn't come off from a simple sweep of the hand. When she was done, she had to admit, it fit her old friend. This was definitely not something she ever imagined the first time she proposed a make-over when they were at university. But finally she finished and tossed the remaining make-up in a container to Kate. "Here, there's enough in there for a few more applications. Hopefully you won't need this for too long. Just be sure to give me a heads-up if you need more in the future."

Victoria glanced in the mirror and actually began to smile. It was a good look for her, shame she didn't seem to smile as much as she used to. "Not bad, Court. I could get used to this."

Everyone satisfied with her first job, Courtney turned her attention on the bigger issue in the room. As per usual, she really only got the bare minimum of information. But that didn't mean that Polaris didn't also have its own rumor mill that ensured nothing stayed totally secret. Max was human, but augged to the point that she was apparently something else. And now it was up to her to make her blend in. "Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, it's a shame to cover up this look you've got going on, girl. The metal head thing is like... so new and awesome."

"Told you..." she heard Victoria mutter in a voice that was probably meant to be subtle and really, really wasn't. Now there was a bit of gossip she wished she could dig into. But Kate probably wouldn't appreciate it. Actually... none of them would have appreciated it. Oh well, another time, she hoped.

"Still, the half-cut by itself isn't nearly as much of a dead giveaway. And we do still have some realistic-looking skin we use for the older-gen androids that I think I can work with here." She sashayed her way over to a nearby counter and did some hunting, eventually retrieving a small container. Inside was a material that was a bit like putty – making it easier to remove and re-apply as needed. Although without the deft hand of a make-up artist, close inspection would reveal that it was far from the real thing. Luckily, there just so happened to be one in the room.

Max's disguise wasn't nearly as easy, and it took a while to get a smooth, even application of the substance to make sure it covered the metal without looking insanely obvious. Then there was all the extra detailing Courtney decided to add, putting a few freckles and the look of shaved hair to add to the realism.

Still, this was only a job half-done, and that was no good. Victoria was still wearing clothing that was pretty obviously part of a ZephSec uniform, and Max needed something that would discourage giving her more than a single look. "Now, round two. Come come, little doves, the clothes make the women." She motioned for everyone to follow her into the back. It wasn't exactly a quality collection, but she at least had a stash of random clothing items for anyone in need of an inconspicuous look.

"The term of the day is earth-tones. Victoria, yours is a little easier since it's kind of a complete package if you wanna fit in with the retro scene. It's basically uh... damn, what did they used to call it? Cosplay? Let... me... see..." She went hunting for a while, eventually coming out with a pile of items, putting them into her friend's arms. "We've got a little room back there for changing. Go ahead, let's see how amazing I am."

Victoria actually laughed as she stepped toward the changing room. "Don't you mean let's see how amazing _I_ am?"

"Bitch I said what I said," she returned in her cattiest voice. Perhaps things really didn't have to change so much. Not if you didn't let them. While they waited for her to get dressed, Courtney turned her attention on figuring out Max's outfit. Again, this one wasn't so easy to decide on. It had to be appropriately uninteresting, which, again, was kind of a damn shame. The woman was cute and deserved to wear something that suited her. But this was all in service of that covert shit, so she would have to make do.

Covering up was the name of the game. Max was pretty much covered in scars, so she needed something full-body was breathable. In the end, she went with a basic long-sleeved tan shirt, an asymmetrical brown skirt, some leggings and flats, and after some thought, a green headscarf and some fingerless gloves. If all else failed, she could always refuse to take off the wrap for one religious reason or another.

Victoria stepped through the door looking every part the warrior woman and Max hurried in after her. Courtney noticed just a tinge of a blush on her face, but chose to keep silent. _Not my business. Not my business. Not my business._ Combat boots, thick pants, a light shirt, even a pair of goggles. She would definitely fit in with those postapoc weirdos. And it did give her a pretty fierce portrait. "Gotta admit, I feel pretty badass, Court. You do good work."

Despite previous threats about chopping off limbs, Courtney did manage to find an outer-aug to complete the look. It went over her arm and looked like something out of the twenty-fifties. Plus, the fact that it did actually provide a minor strength boost wouldn't hurt if things got dicey.

Max came out next, looking pretty damn normal when all was said and done. And this time it was Victoria's turn to go just a little pink in the face. _Not my business. Not my business. Not my business._

Perhaps Kate was sensing something as well because she was quick to bring up a totally unrelated topic with a small smile. "So where is Taylor anyway?"

"Well, since I'm pro-bono-ing this morning, she's at the clinic. One of us has to bring home the bacon when Polaris comes a-callin'."

Victoria's eyebrows went up in a mixture of surprise and awe. "So she really stuck with the surgery thing? That's... damn. That's awesome."

When all was said and done, Courtney made sure to give each of them a final tight hug goodbye. They seemed to have a lot on their shoulders, and no doubt a long way to go before they could properly rest. It wasn't much to offer, but it was something. "Have fun storming the castle~!"

* * *

Things at Zephyr HQ hadn't really improved.

"Sir, if I may... we might as well go to the president. This clandestine lurking only works for as long as things are maintained. I don't know that we can call them 'maintained' anymore. They're getting out of hand. The targets have gone underground, and they have one of our own."

"The president is an alcoholic straw dog. _This_ is all that matters. When the time is right, she'll return to us. She has no other option. She'll want answers. She'll want payback. And we'll be here." He paused, briefly massaging the bridge of his nose. "But fine, if you're so concerned, send in an expert if it makes you feel better. It will do little."


	6. Chapter 6

Chloe heard the sound of the bar's front door and glanced up to see a group of officers entering. Something strange caught her interest. Kate had made a very important point the day before about how teams like these operated. Except in specific cases, there were always three soldiers.

So... why was there four of them?

"Howdy there, everyone. Normally I don't tend to open 'er up early, but for the boys from ZephSec I think I can spare a bottle of booze." She knew the important thing was just to keep up the chatter and play it easy.

The dude at the front of the pack was obviously a commander, bearing the traditional double chevron on his arm. He stepped in ahead of them and looked at her intently while approaching the bar. He set a holopad on the wooden surface and started scrolling through it, first to a picture of Victoria, then another of Max. "These two women are missing and we had reports that they were seen in this area recently."

Doing her best to sell it, Chloe dropped the mug she was cleaning with a rag, her hand going up to her mouth and barely suppressing a gasp and a whimper. "Ma-Max? Somebody saw Max?"

The support officer stepped forward, a tiny redheaded woman. Chloe at least got the impression that (like Victoria) they were all pretty genuine in their ignorance. "I'm sorry, Miss Price. The case with Miss Caulfield remains unsolved. This is just an android that we need to find. Any resemblance is only coincidental." She brushed her hand along her arm, idly messing with the cross patch on her own sleeve.

The heavy was still lingering near the doorway, probably just waiting for shit to pop off. He bore the traditional shield marker on his own arm.

The last was tall with dark skin, and very... mechanical. His symbol was a kind of stylized wing. She couldn't be sure what his job was. While everything was going on, he just moved about her bar with an easy stride, from here to there, investigating everything very intently.

"Sorry, I just... Y'know, sometimes you find yourself still searching crowds in case they should magically show up. Um, otherwise, no, I haven't seen either of these people."

The commander sighed and flipped back to the image of Victoria. "The thing is... we have it on good authority that this patrolwoman was in this part of the city yesterday specifically to find that android. And a few of the locals could swear they heard some kinda ruckus around the time they both dropped off the map. Maybe even a fight?"

"I don't know what to tell you guys..." she said with a vaguely helpless shrug.

Suddenly, the guy who was scanning all over the bar stopped next to the door, touching at the frame gently. "They were both here. The target dropped some trace elements in the air, and you can see damage from combat in a few places."

The senior officer's eyebrow went up. "You wanna try that again, Miss Price?"

Finally, the last gear clicked over in Chloe's head. There _was_ a fourth kind of officer, albeit rumored, a special class only brought out for special situations. Hunters. And now there was one on their trail, standing here in her bar, cold and calculating. Rumor had it they were androids that were either reprogrammed or brainwashed to hunt down their own kind, androids that had gone renegade and maybe gotten their hands on a weapon. Occasionally they were also brought in to deal with debtors who had gotten especially dangerous augs.

"...Look, I don't appreciate you guys coming in here messing with old wounds and acting like I'm some kind of criminal because a bunch of people broke in here while they were having a... a dust-up or whatever! If there were a couple people fighting in here the other day, it had nothing to do with me!"

"That's as may be..." the commander said calmly. "But we're taking you to HQ either way while we sort this out."

* * *

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency at least _looked_ like it was a run-down shamble operation, but of course that was just Dana's own need to play up The Aesthetic. Somewhere between Dick Tracy, the Maltese Falcon, Jessica Jones, and Rick Deckard was the goal. Hard drinkin' and chain smokin' and dirty fightin' and solvin' cases. In the end, that was mostly just advertising and promotional smarts. They handled things like pros, naturally. It had been Juliet's idea back in college, and Dana had rather tactlessly insinuated that she was going to need help. She had people skills and the researching talent of a total nerd. But Dana knew she'd need someone with decent athleticism to get them out of scrapes, not to mention her acting skills for the stealthier cases.

Knowing that they had some rather major clients coming in soon, Dana was busying herself with reviewing the Caulfield file on her holopad. That had been... a tough one. A few years back, a woman with blue hair had come into their office, shaken and terrified. Her best friend had left her bar one night after hanging out, went walking back to her apartment, and had since disappeared. A quick check with her building's security confirmed that she never made it back.

As it turned out, she had been involved in a rather bad accident. You would think a hovercar falling from the sky and landing on top of a girl would have made bigger headlines. But rather than any of the actual trustworthy papers, their initial leads all came from hearsay and rumors. Something crazy happened in the second ring, a Jane Doe getting hit by a falling vehicle. She had survived and was picked up by an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

The people who owned the car were some rich couple who didn't seem all that worked up about the girl they'd hurt, not as much as themselves or the damage to their car. They confirmed that she'd been taken to the hospital, and shortly after were called by a lawyer who informed them that the girl wasn't pressing charges, and the vehicle's plummet was caused by a manufacturing fault; the insurance would take care of everything. So please and thank you, never say anything about this ever again. They were happy to have it all swept under the rug.

The ambulance driver was equally affable. He'd shown up, the medics had done their job and kept her stable before ferrying her off to safety. That was where things got a little more complicated. A series of nurses played a kind of three card monte with her, shifting her to a new room every eight hours or so. Each one had exactly the same story – they'd gotten orders from someone who'd gotten orders from someone else who said she needed to be moved. And that was about the time she dropped completely off the map. Dana hated having a cold case. Juliet hated it even more. And now they were about to meet Miss Jane Doe herself.

Life could be kinda strange like that sometimes.

She closed down the file on her pad as the front door to their office opened and Kate stepped through with a bright smile. They'd met her through Chloe, who had insisted on staying in touch just in case anything came up. And Kate was how they eventually got in touch with Polaris. A lot of missing persons cases had a way of intersecting with the organization's business, and it only made sense to team up. "O Dana, Dana, wherefore art thou Juliet?"

They met in a hug even as Dana laughed and slapped her shoulder playfully. "She's at her desk, doing her usual thing. And I know you know that's not what 'wherefore' means."

"Yeah, but the cadence is just so wonderful, I can't help myself." She turned and gestured to the two women behind her. "That's Victoria. She uhhh... Hm, oh dear, I'm afraid I'm not really sure what her status is at the moment. Helpful but confused?"

The woman with the shaved head just shrugged with a confused smile of her own. "Sounds about right."

Dana looked over her other shoulder and smiled. "And you're Max. I... recognize you from your picture. C'mon, I'll explain for a bit while Juliet finishes up a few other things."

Suddenly, Kate brought a hand to her ear, activating her old-ass comm. Dana understood her aug paranoia, but it really did amaze her the lengths to which she would go to avoid them. "Hello? Chloe? Hey, how did... Woah, slow down... Okay, look, we can deal with this, no problem. Yeah. I'm coming right now." She sighed loudly and gripped the bridge of her nose, though Dana was pretty sure she was actually suppressing the urge to laugh. "Blue, you know I love your witticisms, but now is really not the time. I'll see you soon." She tapped the device again and looked around the reception area. "Chloe's at central lock-up. I need to go bail her out. Max, can you and Victoria just stay here and work with the detectives on getting everyone caught up? I promise I'll be in contact soon with an update."

For all that she had supposedly gone through, Max had quite the patient smile. "Kate, I know I'm still adjusting, but I'm a big girl. I think we can handle it for a few hours while you go make sure Chloe's okay."

She was already making her way for the door, the stress pretty plain on her face. "I swear, I'll call as soon as I can! Please behave while I'm gone and don't go on any crazy adventures!"

"No promises!" Victoria called out cheekily after her.

* * *

Chloe found herself staring at the purple plasma barrier of her cell. It was such an oddly pretty shimmery look for something that could essentially vaporize her on contact.

Things could technically be worse. Yes, she had been brought in to the precinct and questioned more. But she stuck to her story and at some point her stubbornness won out over their insistence. Without anything else productive to do, they put her in a cell under the excuse that she was obstructing justice, despite the fact that she hadn't done anything. Or perhaps it was 'not doing anything' that had gotten her here.

"Chloe!" She heard the sound of the barrier powering down and looked up to see Kate rushing at her, pulling her into a tight hug. "We're getting you out of here."

There were a lot of questions in her head, but she knew that now was really not the time to voice them. Not while any guard passing by could listen in. They walked out together in relative silence, hands linked tightly. They got outside and Chloe was about to open her mouth but Kate shook her head. She had a mega-serious look on her face, one that showed up so rarely, but it always scared her just a little. "Not yet. We've got a tail." She lowered her voice and pressed in close. "I'm so sorry about getting you dragged into all this..."

She gave her best scoundrel smirk and squeezed her hand a little tighter. "Katie, you met me at a pretty boring time in my life. I used to be a major piece of shit. Max can confirm that for me. Believe me, I haven't felt this alive in years. My buddy's back and I'm getting in trouble again. But like... with a purpose. You know I love you, and I would happily go through hell if I had to."

Even if things were chaotic, even if they had someone following them, even if the future was uncertain, they still took a small moment, there on the busy sidewalk to embrace and kiss. As a reminder, or a promise, or just because they could.


	7. Chapter 7

There really wasn't much for Victoria to actually do at the moment. She mostly just sat there while Max talked with the two detectives about how everything had played out. Well, that, and feel progressively more guilty. The company that she used to work for, that she defended and believed in, was doing monstrous things. And the list just kept getting fucking longer. Covering up this near-fatal accident, stealing the poor woman away through far too much subterfuge, trapping her and experimenting on her, and now they were hunting her down like this was her own fault.

All Victoria could think about, beyond the guilt, was how to make up for it. And some of that was altruistic, but some of it really wasn't. The woman was obviously stronger than she gave herself credit for, and it had nothing to do with all the synthetic things that had been implanted into her. Strength was something Victoria respected; it was something she found attractive. The pretty face didn't hurt either.

But until she got the chance to prove that she was here to help and do the right thing, she knew better than to act on such thoughts. So she would keep being quiet, biding her time, waiting for her moment to actually do something decent.

Between all the information they collected, they were at least able to narrow down the most likely part of the city where the secret lab could be. Granted, it was still several dozen square blocks across a quarter of the third ring. But it was better than what any of them had an hour before. If they kept up with the fact-finding, they might actually have a location in a week or so. Sooner, if they worked in shifts and used all of Kate's clandestine contacts.

Speak of the angel, Juliet's desk suddenly emitted a series of beeps and she reached over to press a flashing holographic button. "Kate, how are things going?"

"Hey. I'm glad to hear you all are still home. I know you were thinking about taking the kids out to run some errands. Chloe and I will actually take care of that. You should take them out to see the beach. I know they've been wanting to for a while. Oh! And I was kinda thinking maybe we should all go hunting some time. Blue keeps telling me I'm too much of a city girl and I need to experience a bit of the rugged outdoors, even if only for a few days."

Victoria and Max shared a very confused look, but Juliet and Dana looked totally understanding. The two of them shrugged and nodded. "Sure thing, babe. We'll see you soon, okay?" She shut down the call, and finally seemed to notice that only half the people in the room followed that conversation. "Ah, sorry about that. It's a Polaris thing. I'm guessing they were being tailed or listened in on."

"I mean, using code phrases isn't exactly rare," Victoria said with a shrug.

"Mmm, it turns out that for our needs, code phrases tended to be a little bit too obvious. Instead, we do something closer to improvised metaphor. Kate wants us to hold off on going hunting for this lab and take you guys to the Polaris headquarters, the Lighthouse. Also um... it sounds as though ZephSec has sent a hunter after you, Max. Needless to say, things are bad, and it's officially time to call in the cavalry."

Max frowned, glancing back and forth between them. "W-Wait, so what was that thing about 'taking care of errands'? Are they going off on their own? Will they be okay...?"

Dana laughed softly and moved over behind Max, gently touching her on the shoulder. Victoria felt her hackles raise, and she unconsciously started sitting up just a little taller. She knew, of course, that it was idiotic, but she couldn't help her natural reaction. Her possessive tendencies were cropping up and she needed to push that back down.

"Kate's been at this for a while now, and she's more resourceful than her appearance would make you believe. And, hell, you know Chloe better than most of us. I'm sure you're aware she's got more lives than a cat. They'll be just fine."

For a moment, the woman's face fell slightly before she forced a small smile. "You're right. If they needed help, they would have made it obvious. And I will feel better when I finally get a chance to see where Polaris does its work. So... I guess we should head out?"

* * *

It felt a little bit easier to breathe inside the Great God Pan. Even if Kate knew that their shadow was still waiting somewhere outside, she could at least take a few deep breaths. Now that her call with the others was done, there was something else that still had to be addressed. And Chloe wasn't going to like it. "Okay, so... Here's the thing. I kind of need you to stay here tonight. Open the bar, be normal."

Chloe immediately perked up, her brow furrowing. "And you're gonna do what exactly?"

Kate swallowed. "I'm going to distract our friend and lead him somewhere so we can talk. We can't afford to have him hovering at a time like this."

"Are you insane!?" She flinched slightly, and Chloe seemed to realize too late that she had raised her voice more than intended. "You know I'm not going to let you do that. Things are in the black here, I can afford to keep it closed for another night or two while we sort things out. If you're going to make a move, I'm gonna be there with you, and I'm not going to take no for an answer. I'm ride or die, you know that."

Shuffling in embarrassment, Kate moved behind the bar to grab her from behind, pressing gently into her girlfriend. "I know... I guess I just... Max is going to need you, and if I end up getting hurt doing the right thing, then I can accept that. But not you, Chloe. You have to keep going."

Without even straining herself, Chloe shifted, pulling Kate around and propping her up to sit on the edge of the bar, then stepped in between her knees so that they were now eye to eye. "Where am I gonna go without you next to me? What will Polaris be without their best agent? What's the point of a world without you in it? Zephyr came after my friend, they came after me, and I owe them pain for pain."

Kate leaned in and kissed Chloe hard on the lips. She was terrified of where this road led, but she also knew it was impossible to fight it. "Okay... Okay. Right. Then... I might have an idea."

* * *

Victoria had honestly expected that she and Max would be blindfolded or hooded or something, but neither Juliet nor Dana bothered to try and hide the location of Polaris from them. It didn't escape her irony detector that they wanted to discover the location of a secret underground lab, and were doing so using the help of a resistance organization that was housed in an abandoned metro station in the second ring.

The sole entrance was barred by a massive steel door, and opening it required a retinal scan that Juliet helpfully provided. Just past the door was a kind of lounge area with a few scattered chairs, couches, and crates. There were propaganda posters decorating the walls. The two women from the night before were sitting on one of the couches, busying themselves with... whatever it was hacker nerds did in their spare time. There were a few passages and other doors that led in various directions, several people milling about, chatting, planning. One of the doors opened up and a tan-skinned man walked out. He was tall and a bit round and...

Ah. No. It had taken Victoria a moment to realize it. His immediate presence was so affable and welcoming, she had simply assumed him to be human. Never mind the hawaiian shirt, khaki pants, and sandals. But his eyes gave him away as an older-gen android. "Ah, finally. After a full day of reports and rumors, finally they arrive. Welcome to the Lighthouse, my friends. I'm Daniel, though most people around here have taken to calling me _El Jefe_. I run things around here. It's... really an honor to have you both!"

"Don't listen to him~" Dana said with a wide grin. "Some of us also call him Danny Boy."

Max cleared her throat softly, head tilting slightly. "I'm going to be honest. I get the fact that my growing vendetta against Zephyr fits well with your ideals, so it's a good idea to work together. But I don't think I was expecting such a red carpet greeting. I just don't understand what makes me so special here..."

Daniel motioned for Max to follow him. Dana and Juliet took this as their cue to go about their own business and wandered off to see how Brooke and Mina were doing. Without anything else to do, Victoria stuck by Max's side. She told herself it was merely out of curiosity. Nothing more.

They stepped inside his office, a place that was a little bit chaotic, filled with all manner of more propaganda, various kinds of tech scrap, loose papers, and more. He took a seat behind a battered desk, and motioned for the two of them to sit across from him. "Max, the thing is... Polaris is ultimately a group that wants to fight for the rights of both humans and androids. And as Brooke has explained to me, you are arguably one of the first people in existence to be both human and machine. You... You are an avatar of everything that we have stood for since we first formed. A sign that it's possible to coexist. A... A... messiah!"

There was a long, heavy silence as Max sat there and considered his words. And then, she calmly stood and left the office without a word.

Daniel seemed too shocked to know what to do, so Victoria took the lead and trailed after her. She barely caught sight of her disappearing down a hallway and hurried to catch up, finally finding her in a room that was currently going unused except as a kind of storage space. She was sitting on a crate in the back, breathing heavily. As she drew closer, Victoria could see that her eyes were a bit glassy. "...Max..."

She hurried to rub at her face, doing exactly nothing to hide things. "A-Ah, sorry, I just... needed a second..."

"Hey, take all the time you need. I'm just here to be the muscle." She shrugged and crossed her arms.

Surprisingly, Max actually laughed at that. "Haven't you heard? I'm the _perfect combination of human and machine_. I'm my own muscle..." Her laughter quickly turned sour and she wiped at her face a bit more. "Y'know what I was? Back before all this? I was a photographer. All I wanted to do was take pictures that would touch peoples' hearts. I'm... I'm an artist, for fuck's sake. I don't... want to be an avatar! What the fuck kind of messiah would I be? I mean, I always thought that like... yeah, sure, androids probably shouldn't be slaves all the time. But I was never a revolutionary. I'm still not. I'm just trying to get back to some kind of normal life..."

Victoria gracefully sat down next to her and, after some thought, gently placed an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, fuck all over _all_ of that... It's messed up to just dump that in your lap without even knowing if you're ready to drink the kool aid first." She took a thoughtful pause, idly rubbing her back a little when she heard Max sniffle again. "I don't think anyone will blame you if you decide you want to just run away. Go somewhere Zephyr can't hurt you anymore, where nobody will put you on a pedestal like you're the second coming of Christ."

She nodded her head in agreement, though she didn't initially say anything in reply. And Victoria had mostly said her piece, so they lapsed into a gentle silence. But not a bad one. They mostly just sat there, casting occasional glances at one another, Victoria still occasionally rubbing her back as Max found her center. That was about the time she became aware that Max was ever-so-slowly shifting closer to her. She did her best to give her the benefit of the doubt, certain that she was just resting against her because she was – understandably – exhausted. But... no, she was almost definitely pushing her face closer. And as many idle thoughts Victoria had about exactly this kind of thing, she also knew it would be a terrible idea in the moment.

Luckily or unfortunately, a knock at the storage room door drew both their attention and made them jump. Mina poked her head in and smiled nervously. "Hey, uh... we have an 'all hands on deck' kinda situation, but I think the general consensus is that maybe you two should hang out here? Like a 'just in case' sort of thing. Um, so... make yourselves at home and we'll be back real soon. O-Okay, see you in a bit!"

Attempting to lighten things back up, Victoria laughed softly. "Wonder what they're doing that requi-"

Which was right about the time Max launched forward and pulled her into a desperate, needy kiss.


	8. Chapter 8

Max broke the kiss, knowing full well this was a terrible idea, and finding it honestly pretty hard to care. Much to her dismay, however, Victoria started to put a few inches of distance between them. Worse than that was her own immediate reaction of whimpering pathetically. "Shit, I'm so sorry. I just... thought something was going on."

Her face became almost pitying, which wasn't much of an improvement to the current moment. "Max, you didn't do anything wrong. I just don't... Well, I mean it was a very nice kiss. But not everybody trusts me. I don't even know if _I_ trust me. I'm not really an exemplar of humanity or even much of a... a fucking decent person. And you deserve someone who can be that for you, y'know?"

In spite of herself, Max actually began laughing, pressing her face in against Victoria's shoulder, not wanting to let her get too far away. "Come on, don't make it weird! I'm not asking you to take me to prom or go steady with me. I just need... something... normal for a bit. And you're very pretty, and very strong, and I slept better when you joined me in bed and... It's all connected, right? Some people are super happy about the fact that I'm a cyborg, but I still need something that will remind me I'm human."

Something in her response seemed to finally satisfy the other woman. She lifted her hand up and gently pulled away her head scarf, playing with her hair, smiling sweetly. "Okay, so when your friend Chloe tries to murder me, I can at least die in peace knowing that it was legitimately your fault." She went in for another kiss, this one a bit slower and more easy-going. Her hand dipped down, cupping Max's cheek now, brushing the thumb against her jaw. "If it's any consolation, I could use a little help feeling human too. I mostly feel like a monster with everything I'm finding out."

Max gently placed a playful kiss to her bottom lip. "You're not a monster. You were just trying to be... good at your job. You couldn't have known the things they were up to. And you're still here. That's something." Sure, she didn't have any solid reasoning for this. She didn't even have any solid reasoning for wanting to be closer to her. But Max didn't care about solid reasoning right now. She just wanted something vaguely normal.

* * *

It occurred to Chloe that it was a good thing this park was empty, because at the moment their crew was rather lacking in subtlety. A majority of Polaris' agents were gathered around, each of them holding some kind of weapon. Stella had been called in, who was presently toting a rather impressively-sized rifle. She had brought Alyssa along, with her favorite shock-knuckles. The detectives were there, the fashionista and her doctor wife, Brooke and Mina, Danny Boy, a couple other folks. And there was Chloe with her shotgun.

The plan was simple, and insane. There was a hunter on their trail, and they had to either convince him to stand down, or take him out. But he was an android, and well-trained at that. It would take more than a few plucky hopefuls to do the job, they needed everyone. Chloe's only caveat was that Max couldn't be anywhere around when the melee started. Kate had been quick to agree.

So the time had come, there was no stalling. Kate stepped forward from the crowd and looked out into the darkness beyond the trees. "I think we can dispense with the charade, officer. Maybe we can have a little chat?"

A figure emerged, dressed in the usual Zephyr security uniform. The thing that struck Chloe as immediately odd was his expression. During the time he spent inspecting the bar, he was serious, deadpan. But now, he had a big, friendly smile and an almost easy gait. Chloe was fairly certain she knew when someone was just putting on a show, even if they were an android. But this massive guy seemed genuinely pleased to finally reveal himself. "Hey."

Everyone simultaneously tensed up, but Chloe could see that Kate was doing her best to stay standing tall. "Well, it's good to actually see you after an entire afternoon spent being stalked."

He laughed and slid his hands into his pockets, his posture easy. "Yeah, you caught on pretty quick. But hey, you didn't run and you didn't try to fight me, so I figure... y'know, no harm, no foul."

All any of them could do was just watch this exchange in stunned quiet. "Can I ask your name?"

"They call me HJ1011," he said with a shrug, his face falling slightly.

Kate smiled that perfect smile of hers, and it actually managed to put Chloe at ease too, even if that wasn't the intended effect. "Thank you, but I asked you what your name is, not your designation. I have a sneaking suspicion you might have one."

The android laughed again, even more delighted now. "I knew you were trouble, little lady. I've uh... always seen myself as a Hayden." He started to approach once again, extending a hand toward her. The entire rest of the crew raised their weapons just a hair. But Kate didn't bat an eye, she just met him halfway, took his hand, and shook it confidently. "I'd like to offer myself up to your notorious organization."

She withdrew her hand with a polite laugh, shaking her head. "So that you can emit your tracking signal and bring the entirety of ZephSec down on our heads? We're not that easy, Hayden."

They were still sharing in a strange kind of earnest laughter. Knowing Kate, the only reason they could keep this legitimately civil without becoming more tense was due to some kind of shared respect. "I shut off my tracking beacon the second I left HQ. I told them that it was better if I'm not giving off all kinds of obvious tells. Naturally they bought it. But I'm sure it's easy for me to _say_ that. Maybe one of your people can verify it for you. I hear Polaris is pretty resourceful."

Kate glanced back toward the tech nerds with a slightly confused face. "Uh, Mina?"

She held up her wrist and punched in a few buttons on the holo-pad implanted there. "No pings in the area. He's... clean?"

As if to drive the point home, he held out his wrists in the classic 'cuff me' pose. "I am at your mercy, m'lady."

Daniel sighed, crossing his arms. "Juliet, go back to base and make sure the cell is prepped. I know it's not fully tested, but no time like the present, yes? Dana, go with her, grab Victoria, we might need her. Hayden, I respect an honest man, but I loathe betrayal. Any sign things are going south, you'll be destroyed without hesitation. Understood?"

"Perfectly clear, sir. One wrong move, I lose my life. It's only fair." He offered another charming smile, and as much as Chloe wanted to hate him, she found it difficult.

* * *

Honestly, Hayden had kind of expected this. Polaris didn't get their reputation by openly accepting anyone into their ranks. You didn't approach them, they approached you. But they also weren't known for excessive violence. They stood up for the little guy, whether they were human or not. And it was that compassion that he was banking on more than anything, even if he had to jump through a few hoops to come through the other side.

So here he was, sitting in a cell not all that different from the kind they had at Zephyr. Plasma shielded door, a cot, a few other basic necessities. It was certainly more comfortable, for one thing. Still, there was no denying that he could get out of it if he were actually interested in doing so. But he was here for a reason, and he wasn't going anywhere.

Even hearing their leader say Victoria's name, even knowing that she was still missing, he hadn't honestly expected her to walk in the door and take a seat across from him. "Hey there. Almost didn't recognize you in that get-up. It's uh... quite a look, Chase."

She smirked, crossing her legs like she was a proper lady. "Then that means it's doing its job. Gotta admit, HJ, this is not a play I saw coming. What's your angle?"

He shrugged and leaned back slightly. "Thought I made it pretty clear. I wanna join up."

"That makes no sense. You're... you were... I thought that was the whole point of the reprogramming thing. Being a hunter, all that."

"In most cases, you can't just wipe an android and then rewrite everything from the ground up, y'know? They have to leave stuff intact. All they can really do is a patch job. And at least for me, stuff came back over time. Memories and realizations... I knew I had to get out, and who would have thought it, you provided the perfect opportunity." He paused for a moment, just to make sure he chose his words correctly. It would be all too easy to sound like he was a plant or a double agent. "Do you remember when you were a cadet, and I was so serious all the damn time? But after a while I loosened up and got more friendly with humans? It's not like I went in for a personality upgrade. That was just my old self coming back to me. The droid who hated seeing anyone in pain and just wanted to make peoples' lives better and ended up getting his eggs scrambled for it. I wanna take Zephyr down, same as any of these people." Something clicked in his head and he smirked. "How about you? Just the other day you were another soldier minding their own business. Now you're shacking up with Polaris? What happened in the last 24 hours?"

Surprisingly, her face started to go pretty red and she broke eye contact with him. Had he said something weird? "Well... I kinda got my ass kicked yesterday. Turns out a shotgun to the stomach still hurts like a mad bastard even with body armor. I was captured, and they brought in Kate to have a heart to heart with me. She explained that I was on a suicide mission, and after that I kinda just saw red. Each new thing I learn is..." She shook her head sadly, crossing her arms defensively. "I'm not exactly with Polaris or anything. But... I wanna see Zephyr burn too. So I'll work beside them for now. Max deserves revenge."

Something about the way she said Caulfield's name... seemed like there was a story there that she wasn't telling. But he wasn't the interrogator here, and pushing his luck wouldn't help anybody. "So... what's the next move? You gonna go out there and tell them I'm still suspicious. Ooh, or maybe they'll re-educate me and make me into a revolutionary. If nothing else, it should be exciting."

Victoria got up to her feet with a little laugh. "They're uh... They're good people here, as I'm sure you've figured out. You'll be fine. Just have to go vouch for you. In no time, we'll be torching those sons of bitches to the ground and dancing on the ashes, eh?"

* * *

Seemingly all of Polaris was gathered in the Lighthouse lounge area. Max was leaning against a wall and watching them all curiously while they waited for Victoria to return. Occasionally she would catch Daniel glancing at her, though she wasn't really ready to humor his zealous idealism just yet.

Much to her relief, Victoria finally came back and immediately returned to her side, joining her in leaning against the wall. She was pretty sure she saw Chloe raise an eyebrow, and did her best to offer a mysterious smile. "Well, don't know if my opinion really counts for much, but... knowing him for a while now, this seems pretty legit. It lines up, y'know? Not saying you should hand him a gun and give him a membership or whatever. But he's safe to have around at any rate."

Every nodded seriously, intending to at least consider her advice. Kate looked toward Max with a little frown. "I think we're all in agreement that Zephyr doesn't have any interest in letting you get away, Max. The simple fact of the matter is that we're going to need to halt our usual operations until this is dealt with. We need a plan, and we need one soon."

Victoria gave a little sigh. "I have an idea. It's dumb and it's dangerous, and it would require fast action. But I'm certain we would walk away with more info than we have now."

There was a rather long silence as everyone decided whether to let a non-agent be the tactician for this scenario. But finally Kate nodded with a little smirk. "Okay, let's hear it."


	9. Chapter 9

The air blew across the rooftop of the office building. Victoria breathed in deep and released through her nostrils. Things were going to happen soon, but they hadn't happened yet. She glanced down the scope of her rifle at the crowds below, making their way into the hotel for the annual Zephyr gala. She could just make out Dana in her luminescent gown, allowing herself a tiny smirk. "Got some real strange people working for Polaris, I'll say that much..."

Max was standing next to her, arms crossed, watching everything just as intently. "Yeah, well, the people they contract out are kinda wacky too, let's be honest. Former ZephSec guards, a bouncer, a cyborg... It has a way of drawing you in." She sighed, perhaps not as jovial as her phrasing would make it sound.

Victoria pulled away from the rifle and sat up to look at her. "When all this is done, you're going on a vacation if I have to shove you onto the high-speed rail myself. A beach somewhere, or camping or something. As long as you're away from here."

She cracked a smile, which felt like a major victory at the moment. "Probably be easier to make sure I actually relax if you go along with me. You know, to keep an eye on me. Platonically. Like a chaperone."

"Hah, yeah. No other reason. Real slick, Maxine." The two lapsed into soft laughter for a while.

The communicators they had been given both buzzed to life and they could hear one of the agents clicking their tongue. "Hey, lovebirds, save the flirtation for after we do this thing."

Max rolled her eyes and tapped the communicator. "Sorry Stella. This is really new for me and I'm all... antsy. I'll make sure to keep the lines clear from here on out. How are things on your end?"

"Was just about to get the ball rolling, so I figured I'd ping everyone."

Victoria nodded and got back down in front of the rifle. "Okay. Everyone stay safe out there. If things get hot, just remember this was my crazy-ass plan, and you don't have to get yourselves caught on my account. Play it safe. No risks."

* * *

Stella had always been very good at going unnoticed. Of course, when she was younger, it had been a source of almost constant frustration. But as she got older, she realized that it could also be a major benefit. With just a bit of confidence and a winning blasé attitude, she could enter restricted areas and do as she pleased. By the time she'd been brought on with Polaris, she was skilled at hiding in plain sight, breaking her way in through most any door, casually talking her way through conversations when she had no clue what was going on. She had, inadvertently, become something of an asset.

At this exact moment, she was wearing an Arcadian Suites uniform and was doing her best to talk to the girl manning the front desk. "Look, I-I dunno! This is literally my first week here, and all I know is Brad told me to get Melissa because there was some kinda problem with the... what'd he call 'em? The orr-durves or something? Said you were the person to talk to..." She shrugged uselessly.

Melissa huffed and shot up from her seat. "How many times do I have to tell that asshole that I can't solve every little crisis that pops up? Ugh, I'm sorry, I promise things usually aren't this bad around here. But once a year, we host the Zephyr gala and the entire hotel just goes to shit. I'll be right back." She stormed out, more than likely in search of Brad to tear him a new asshole.

Stella watched her go with a little smirk before getting behind the desk when the coast was clear. From her pocket she withdrew a device that she inserted into a drive connected to the system. She also grabbed up two of the spare room cards and slid them into the certification machine. "Okay... One fresh room upgrade served up hot from Polaris to you, Mister President. Brooke, looks like everything is hooked up, so work your magic and do it fast. I really don't want Melissa to come back and find me. Mostly because I'm not particularly interested in listening to her bitch about Brad."

The sound of her friend chuckling came in over the earpiece. "It's all good, I know how you feel about social interaction. Coming atcha in five, four, three..."

A variety of code popped up on the holo-screen that meant precisely zip to Stella, but according to Brooke that was the real deal. Sure enough, there was a ding of success, and she was able to eject all the various devices. "Dana, I'm coming your way."

"She's hard to miss. Just look for the Christmas tree..." Stella had to admit, she kind of liked Victoria. The woman had sass to spare.

* * *

Dana sipped slowly at her champagne. God, she wished she could get a few whiskeys in her system to make this go easier. But out on a mission, it was generally frowned upon to do something that could compromise the situation. Especially with someone like poor Max depending on all of them. She had earned their best work, that was for damn sure.

She could see Stella approaching through the crowd carrying a platter like it was second nature. Sitting on top of it was room card and a compact device. Dana plucked them from the tray and set them both in her purse. "Thank you, darling. Be sure to tell everyone back home that I said hi. I think when my job is done I might stick around for a while and take advantage of the free grub and booze."

Stella laughed softly and shook her head, lowering the platter to tuck under her arm. "I think I prefer the parties Alyssa and I throw. The dress code is easier and I know all the steps." She casually placed the tray under a nearby table before slipping away back down a service hallway to take care of the next step.

Dana started to make her way about the soiree, carefully approaching the president of Zephyr from the side. Laughing along with whatever was said, she gently touched his arm to get his attention and draw him aside. "Excuse me, Mr. President. My name is Shonda Peterson, I recently started working for the hotel. When I saw what they were putting together for your stay here, I was appalled. Is it true you usually stay in one of our standard rooms? I said to myself that simply will not do, so I bothered and nagged and cajoled until finally my boss agreed to give you the upgrade you deserved." She knew that in cases like this, the more she talked, the less questions could be answered. From her purse, she fished out the new room card and passed it to him smoothly. "I also called in a few favors to ensure that your company for the evening would be more... to your liking. And please, if you need anything at all, you just talk to my girl Melissa at the front desk and she will _hook. you. up._ " She winked at him, and with that disappeared back into the crowd.

* * *

Rachel tugged the flimsy jacket around her as tight as she could, though it didn't do much to warm her. It was designed to reveal a frankly ludicrous amount of skin, which kind of defeated the entire point of a fucking jacket. Never mind the equally flimsy dress and ridiculous heels. She always knew that her goal of becoming an actress might lead her to this point.

Alright, so maybe she wasn't going to _actually_ be the companion for the president. But that was the role she was playing. The side entrance she was waiting next to finally opened, revealing Stella's beaming face. Well, beaming-ish. Well, she looked pleased with herself at least. "M'lady, the boudoir awaits."

Rachel was grumbling as she pushed past her and into the warmth of the building. "I'm almost positive that's not how that word is meant to be used..."

It was a quick elevator ride up to the top of the hotel. The door stayed shut when they reached it however, and Stella had to press a chipped card against a reader on the panel before the doors would let them through. The presidential suite, as it turned out, was the entire top floor. Rachel whistled softly in appreciation, stepping through the little living room area, brushing her hand along the top of the couch. "Damn, my first time in such a swanky place and I don't even get to stay the night or anything."

Stella laughed softly, still leaning up against the wall near the elevator. "I mean, I guess you still could? You'd just have to put up with the fact that you're gonna have a captive to put up with."

Rachel tried to imagine getting a decent sleep on the big-ass bed with an angry capitalist yelling at her in the background. It... didn't sound good. "Ugh, never mind, I'll just have to get this over with quick and find some other way to entertain myself tonight. Good work with everything, Stella. You should probably get home and make sure that Alyssa knows you're not dead. I've got it from here." She clearly didn't have to tell her companion twice, because when she next looked up, the doors were sliding shut and Stella was gone. Rachel went to a door that led to an outdoor balcony and propped it open. A moment later there was a sound of something heavy dropping down, followed by the door shutting. Even with all the rumors and explanations coming down the grapevine, somehow this woman wasn't what Rachel had expected. She was even shorter than the blonde, skinny and a little mousy. This was the unstoppable powerhouse? This was the cyborg? "Uh... hey."

"Hi. It's Rachel, right? Um, good to meet you." She extended a hand to her, and Rachel took it, a little surprised by how firm her grip was before remembering _oh duh right cyborg_. "Admittedly the circumstances aren't great, but y'know. Still cool."

Reaching into her purse, Rachel retrieved her Haphaestus pistol and powered it on. "Is it true you don't really need one of these bad boys?"

"Pretty sure there's some part of me that could literally emit electricity on command if I only knew how to activate it." She turned and looked out the window, giving a little wave to the next rooftop over. Rachel could just barely make out another figure doing the same in return. "Plus we have a contingency plan, just in case."

* * *

Raymond Wells' head was spinning.

The last thing he remembered was calling it a night and making his way up to the presidential suite. In truth, he was a little furious that this room existed and hey had never thought to give it to a goddamn president before. But that anger was soon enough dealt with when the doors parted and he was given a look at his very appealing partner for the night. They had begun flirting and then... nothing.

He gave his surroundings a look, and was relieved to find that he was still in the suite. He was less happy about the fact that he was strapped to a chair. His aforementioned escort was presently holding a stun pistol on him, and next to her was...

"Maxine Caulfield."

"Mr. President. We have a few things we need to discuss."


	10. Chapter 10

"I have to admit, I'm impressed. From what I understand, you have managed to ally yourself with Polaris in record time. All this effort just to talk to me. You could have simply made an appointment." Max didn't really appreciate the snark from this guy. It made her want to cave in his face, but she knew that any heavy violence would come back to bite her in the ass. But she also couldn't just punch the wall instead because the people who worked here didn't deserve to have that kind repair job. So she just clenched her hand tightly, to the point that she could swear she heard straining mechanisms inside her arm.

"Don't. You know something, and you're going to tell me what it is. We'd both be saving ourselves a lot of trouble if you just came out with it now."

Rachel had her stun pistol trained on him and was clearly eager to take a shot at him. "C'mon, one little blast in the chest. That should get him to spill everything."

Unimpressed, the president just scoffed. "Please. Clearly neither of you is exactly familiar with the fine art of torture and interrogation. This is embarrassing."

Max crouched down so that she was more at Wells' eye level. "Let me spell something out for you here. In a situation like this, you _want_ somebody who knows what they're doing. Me? I'm a worst-case scenario. Some military guy, he'd know exactly how to take one of your fingers and snap it, just so, to cause you a lot of pain and get you talking. But me, I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I might end up ripping your pinky off completely. In an attempt to break your arm, I might send you into shock, or even just straight-up kill you. It would be poetic in a way, getting murdered by the monster that you allowed to be created." She stood back up and started to saunter away. "Because that's the thing, right? You didn't do this to me, not really. But unless you explain to me how this happened, I'm still going to assume that you have a lot of blame. So if you want to avoid losing a pinky, or your life, I would recommend giving me something I can use. It doesn't end here. It doesn't end until I get some justice."

Rachel's hand started to dip and she stared at Max in shock. "That's not... really how Polaris works, Max..."

She turned on her heel, glaring at the blonde. "Maybe not. It's not how I work either. But I need information, and right now I don't have the energy to pretend I'm some kind of professional. If you're uncomfortable with this, you're free to leave."

There was a brief pause where she seemed to legitimately consider the offer before raising her pistol once more, aiming at the president. "I'm here. Just... do whatever you think you should."

Surprisingly, it was Wells who spoke up next. "Jesus Christ, I can't deal with all this moralizing about whether or not you should kill me. It's simply not worth all the fucking cloak and dagger. The man you're looking for is Dr. Mark Jefferson. He was one of my best until the madness set in. He started doing some really unethical things in his lab that I didn't need getting back to me. But he was confident the things he could do would make Zephyr into the number one name in leading technology. So... I gave him somewhere more discrete to do his work. By the time I found out about all the human experiments, he was several years in and several degrees more insane. And, of course, he had the kind of blackmail that could bring the company down around us." He sighed, and Max could swear that she heard some legitimate sorrow in there somewhere. "I closed down an entire factory for that asshole to hide in. Even has his own team of security goons. If you wanna go after him, you can find him hiding out at one of our old R&D facilities, Factory 42 in the northern part of the third ring."

Rachel withdrew a small recording device from the pocket of her jacket, grinning from ear to ear. "Maxine, you were worried. You're quite the actress after all!"

Max beamed at the compliment, only further delighted by how confused Wells looked. "Well, it helps when you have such an excellent scene partner."

"It was a goddamn bluff? I'm so fucking... Oh hell..."

Giggling, Rachel put her pistol away and wandered over to give him a gentle pat on the head. "Maxine here is a pussycat, a teddy bear. I'm just an actress. And you? Well... you're the putz that gave us everything we need and then some." She passed the recording device to Max who happily slipped it into her pocket before sauntering out the door with a friendly wave. "Ta!"

"You won't get anywhere with this. No jury will convict based on evidence obtained through illegal means!" Wells was now struggling against his chair, although it obviously wasn't doing much. "Let me go, Caulfield! Free me now and I won't bring the entire wrath of ZephSec against you!"

Max just chuckled softly and made her way out onto the balcony. "Stay calm, Mr. President. We'll be sure to send someone along to set you free once we're all a safe distance from the hotel. Have a nice evening!" She didn't stick around to hear any more of his angry shouting. Instead, she pushed herself up onto the railing and then making a flawless jump across to the rooftop where Victoria was waiting. She went almost straight into her arms where Victoria kissed her on the lips. "Woah! Don't get me wrong, I like your way of congratulating me on a mission well-done, but I'm confused as to what gives."

The woman's face was pretty damn red, and she looked suddenly very guilty. "I... kinda got a little paranoid that you and Rachel were flirting and I felt the need to assert my dominance in this situation."

"Pffft, way to make a sweet gesture sound like something out of a documentary." She stole one last kiss for good measure before putting a call in to Chloe.

"Hey, are we happy?"

"We're very happy. We're about to make our way back to the Lighthouse to initiate Phase 2."

"My favorite phase. See you soon."

* * *

With such solid info to use, everyone got the call to come back to base. Max was looking around the main meeting room at just how many people were around and seemingly ready for a fight. "I appreciate the fact that you guys want to do this, but I think it would be best for me to do this alone. I can get in easier that way, and I'm sure this Doctor Jefferson guy wouldn't want me getting hurt if things get dangerous."

Victoria scoffed. "What, so you can get captured again and go through another five years of torture and experimentation? No dice. I'm going too."

"If she's going, I'm going. I'm not missing out on a rumble."

"Okay well... if you two are planning on getting into a shootout, then someone needs to be there with a med pack." Kate's brow furrowed together tightly, the worry clear as day on her face.

That was about the time things really spiraled. Taylor was the next to speak up. "Kate, you're only trained in basic first aid. If people get anything worse than a stubbed toe, we'll need someone around with more experience."

Courtney glared. "Someone has to watch your backs while you're patching wounds."

Within moments, practically everyone was volunteering themselves for one job or another. Brooke's drone, a weapon that Mina was testing out, Hayden's sheer brawn, even Daniel was willing to take up arms. Max might have felt uncomfortable with letting everyone else fight this battle for her, but it wasn't as if she could talk them out of it. These were people who fought against Zephyr every day, for no other reason than moral imperative. She wasn't going to convince them in five minutes. As they went to crack open the Polaris armory and get geared up, Max just stood there and sighed quietly to herself.

She was pulled out of her internalizing as Daniel touched her gently on the arm. "Max, if you have a moment?"

"Uh, yeah, what's up?"

He looked down at the floor sadly for a moment. "I... heard a part of your conversation with Miss Chase the other night. I didn't mean to, but sometimes my ears just do it of their own volition. The thing is, I'm an artist too. I was an attendant at a resort, and when I wasn't taking angry complaints from guests, I did a lot of sketches. It started with lifelike drawings, the kind any android could make. But over time I learned how to do more abstract images, but that scared my owners. Before they could send me in for reprogramming, I ran away. Over time, I found others like me, and sympathetic humans, and suddenly we were an organization."

He sighed, adjusting his posture slightly but still not looking in Max's direction. "All that is to say... I didn't really think before getting excited about you being here. I didn't consider how you might react. It would be... mighty hypocritical of me to make you be something that doesn't feel natural to you."

Max let out a sigh that she had probably been holding for almost 24 hours now. It was a bigger relief than she was expecting to hear something like that. "Thank you, Danny Boy. I think Polaris is an amazing group and I don't mind helping you guys with what you do. But... well, maybe the best option is to not even have a poster child, ya know? You have so many amazing people here, it would run counter to everything you stand for to lift up just one person." Everyone was slowly filtering back in with various weapons and armor, and she gave Daniel an understanding smile. "I think that's our cue."

* * *

Considering almost the entirety of Polaris was approaching the warehouse, there was basically no way to be stealthy. Not that it mattered, anyway. The main loading door was open, and inside was a crew of Zephyr security goons leaning up against various crates and boxes, some of them smoking and shooting the shit as if they were on break. Even as Max walked through with her companions, only one of them stood and actually regarded them, flicking away his cigarette casually.

"Holy shit. Look at this stellar crew of hardened warriors and fearsome combatants. I'm shaking in my boots."

Max could see Victoria tense up, not even bothering to hide it. "Prescott? How the fuck did you get a command position?"

He chuckled softly and pulled an intimidating gun from his back holster. "I learned how to do my job and not ask questions. I showed dedication and loyalty. You wanna know why you never got promoted? Look at who your allies are and you'll have your answer."

She stamped her foot, for a moment turning into a petulant child. "This isn't about promotions and ranks, you idiot! Zephyr is bad, unquestionably, undeniably, awful, terrible, no good. And the asshole you're guarding is the worst of the worst. So you're going to stand down and let us deal with him, or you're going down with the ship."

"You heard the lady." He motioned to his underlings, who all stood up and readied their weapons just as casually as he did.

And then, things exploded. Bullets were flying, lasers shooting sparks everywhere. Brooke's drone was hovering above the chaos, sniping from a convenient hiding spot in the rafters. Everyone ducked behind whatever cover they could find. Without any kind of traditional weapon, Max took her time moving from one bit of cover to the next until she could get within range of someone to hit with her fists.

Naturally, this brought her face to face with the officer Victoria had been arguing with, Prescott. But Max figured if she could take down the commander, that might put a damper on the rest of the team's resistance. Curling her hand into a fist like Chloe had taught her, she shot it out lightning fast at his chest.

Then, he caught it, retaliating with a kick that sent her flying back into the wall. Cement cracked and steel bent with a series of horrible noises. The chaos of the battle died down as everyone turned to see the cyborg getting countered so viciously. Prescott laughed, low and throaty. "Yeah. You're not the only one with upgrades."


	11. Chapter 11

All activity came to a grinding halt as everyone turned to see Nathan's vicious counter-attack. Victoria's heart stopped for just a moment, but Max seemed to at least still be conscious. With a groan, she moved away from the wall and scrambled out of the way from his next strike. It wasn't particularly graceful, but at least she avoided it. Even if all the other officers were quickly losing their fire – did they not know about his 'upgrades'? - Victoria wasn't content to let the two of them duke it out alone. She hefted up her rifle and fired off a few shots at her former friend. "Hey asshole. Fight someone who actually knows a few moves."

Of course, the bullets didn't seem to make much of a dent in him, and Prescott was still more focused on taking down Max.

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Hayden tackled into Nathan, blindsiding him and dropping him to the ground with a loud thud. The series of punches from the android appeared to do a lot more damage, even if it wasn't enough to take him down outright. It had at least provided enough time for Max to get back to where the rest of the group was waiting.

"Boss, what the hell is going on?" cried out one of the other officers.

Prescott just shoved Hayden away, climbing unsteadily to his feet. "That's none of your fucking business, soldier. Now help me destroy this cluster of idiots."

"Fuck that. This is so far outside my paygrade it's not even funny. I'm out." One officer dropped his gun and started for the door, quickly followed by the rest of them. That should have felt like a victory, but Prescott looked like he was just getting more and more pissed. Even from before all this insanity, Victoria remembered that he had a rather nasty temper.

"Fine. I'll kill all of you and dismantle her myself!"

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Surprisingly, it was Alyssa that was stepping forward to challenge him this time. Like Hayden, she went in for a charging attack as her electrified gloves fired up in an impressive display. Prescott caught her, but Alyssa wasn't allowing herself to be thrown. Instead, she wrapped her gloved hands around his head, holding on tight. "Hey, wanna see a cool magic trick, motherfucker?" Rather than sending millions of volts through him, the two gloves produced a pair of loud booms that even caused a few nearby lights to start flickering. Prescott dropped to the ground like a sack of hammers, Alyssa stumbling back with a grunt. "Yeah, EMP. Hard to do anything when all your little servos and gyros aren't working, huh."

Hayden was quick to deliver an extra kick to Nathan's face, knocking him properly unconscious.

Victoria looked down and realized that at some point she had grabbed Max's hand, and squeezed it gently. "Well... that's one barrier out of the way. But I'm willing to bet it's not the end..."

Daniel strolled over to the body on the floor and looked him over cautiously. "The last thing we need is for him to come back at an inopportune time. Alyssa, Stella, I want you two to keep an eye on him. Juliet and Courtney, things are getting hairy and we need all the info we have in the hands of anyone we can reach. Use every contact you've got. Dana, I want you recording everything from here on out, stream it to them live."

Nodding and tapping her temple, she scanned her eyes around the room. "Glad I can finally put this damn aug to use."

"Brooke, Mina, we need you here too, see if you can hack this guy's systems like you did for Max. Anything you can do to shut down his systems more permanently would be greatly appreciated. Everyone else, you're on investigation detail. Look for stairs or an elevator, find the doctor, and let's get this done."

* * *

It didn't take long to find a way down into the lab. Not because any of them were particularly observant, but because a pair of hidden doors slid open without warning. A voice suddenly filtered into the warehouse through some worn-out speakers. "I think it's time we bring this entire farce to an end. Miss Caulfield, why don't you pop on down and we can have a little chat. Bring a few of your friends if it will make you feel better. Especially your little investigator friend. I want the world to see what I've cooked up."

Chloe groaned softly, holstering her shotgun. "So much for the element of surprise. Max, are you seriously gonna go down there? I mean, it sounds like a major fucking trap."

"I don't exactly have much of a choice. I need... I don't know, answers? Justice? Something, at any rate. And if it really is a trap, all the more reason to not go down alone. I can count on you, right?"

"You know it." She extended a fist and Max gently bumped it.

This led into yet another round of 'I'm going too' but Daniel was quick to step in this time. "The plan still stands. Max, take Chloe, Dana, Hayden, Kate, and Victoria. The rest of us will remain here and stick to our own missions. If you can, bring him in, but don't do anything risky, okay?"

They all nodded seriously and stepped on the elevator. Chloe looked around for a button or a panel, only for the doors to close and the box to start moving on its own yet again. "Fucking hell this is unsettling..." Kate's hand slipped into her own, tugging her in closer. "Lucky for us he didn't tell you to come alone."

Dana looked toward her with eyes narrowing slightly. "Chloe, I love your quips as much as any of us, but now is probably not the time."

"It's a defense mechanism. Sue me."

That pretty much ended all conversation at that point, and while it did make Chloe antsy, it was also probably for the best. Things were tense enough already, she didn't need nasty old habits cropping up – making things worse and ending with people getting mad at her. They needed to focus on the real issue here. The doctor would pay, if she had anything to say about it.

* * *

After an uncomfortable ride, the doors finally opened again. Victoria ended up leading the crew into the hallway, so Kate opted to bring up the rear. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something, anything, terrible to happen – a trap or whatever. But the pattern continued no matter how much deeper they went – there was really nothing happening here. All silence and tension.

The door opened into a wide room. Like everything else, it was relatively nondescript. Well, aside from the massive beast standing between them and the next door. "Um... I thought we were supposed to just walk on in," Kate said, mostly to herself.

"Holy shit..." Dana muttered softly.

Hayden was quick to move around the rest of the group and get between them and the monster. At a glance, it looked to be some horrible combination of a wolf, a lion, a tiger, and a bear. Probably more too. As far as Kate knew about biology, that was more or less impossible. Yet there it was facing them down, managing to dwarf even a giant like the android.

The speakers crackled and that annoying voice returned. "I got a bit ahead of myself. I actually need just a bit more time to finish up in here. I didn't want to leave you bored and waiting, so why don't you play with my pet for a while? Ares, dear, have fun."

Just like that, the creature snapped and charged. Hayden quickly met it with his bare hands, trying to keep it from reaching any of the others. Without much else in the way of options, they all started unloading whatever weapons they had. Even if her own weapon was mostly for stunning, Kate took a few shots at it as well, just to try and help in overpowering it.

Suddenly, Max put herself between Hayden and the 'Ares' creature. "Wait!" Its paws came crashing down, and she threw up her hands to meet them, pushing Ares back a little. In spite of how terrifying it was, she didn't seem willing to back down. Kate could hardly believe what she was seeing. Everyone began to lower their weapons. For some time, she and Ares engaged in a test of strength against one another, it's growls and roars slowly dying down until she finally allowed it to drop back down on all fours. Her hand moved up and gently cupped its bizarre mane. "Easy there boy... You're just like me, huh?"

Dana cocked her hip and assumed a more neutral position. "Uh, sweetie, I appreciate that you're going all animal whisperer on us, but what in the world makes you feel like a big bear-wolf?"

"Not literally. But... just look at him. He shouldn't even _be_. I'm sure he doesn't want to do this. All those different genes fighting with each other. He wants to be alone and be in a pack at the same time. Does he eat meat or fish or...? He's only here because an insane person made him like this. But... you're here now, buddy, and you don't have to be angry or upset any more. I'll take care of you. Polaris will look after you." Max suddenly cast her glance back at Kate, puppy-dog eyes and all. "Right?"

"I-I mean... we don't exactly have a lot of room but... b-but..." A glance at Ares and now he was staring at her with wide eyes too, and Kate could feel her heart nearly snap in two. "...Hayden, why don't you take him back up top."

"He won't cause a fuss, will ya boy?" Max was suddenly laughing like she had probably never done since escaping this place. "Naw, he's a big softie!" She gave him some belly rubs and he began to pant like a giant dog. "Go on, Hayden and the others will treat you real good. We're just going to deal with that nasty old Jefferson and then we can figure out what to do with you, huh? Follow Hayden, Ares."

There may have been more than mere splicing going on here. Ares appeared to actually understand some of what Max was saying, and happily went lumbering off back down the hallway with the bewildered android.

Victoria huffed softly, holstering her huge rifle once more. "I'm officially ready for this to be over."

"You tamed the mighty beast." Everyone jumped as the speakers crackled once more. The sound was grating, the kind of noise you could only get from aged machinery. For such a genius, Kate would have imagined even the basic tech would be up-to-date, and yet... "I'll be honest, I didn't expect that. I'm going to miss that big idiot, but I don't really need him any longer. Not after what I have planned. I believe everything is ready, so why don't you pop on in and we can end this, since you're so eager."

The doors opened once again, the final confrontation just on the other side. With determination etched on her face, Max rose to meet it, heading for the door without another word. Everyone else silently followed after her.


	12. Chapter 12

Max wasn't particularly surprised to walk in and find a bright, white lab on the other side of the door. What she hadn't been expecting was the sudden feeling of nausea that washed over her upon seeing it. She knew instantly. Right behind the door off to the right, that was where she had been kept for so long. The smell of the place, it was like the antithesis of a place that smelled like home. And standing in the middle of the room was a figure both familiar and alien. He looked younger than Max assumed he would be. Maybe even younger than what she remembered. Surely Jefferson should have been in his sixties or seventies, but he didn't look older than forty five.

All of this combined left her feeling incredibly disoriented. "Ah, there she is. Miss Caulfield, how nice to see you again."

"I can't really say the same..."

"Hmmm, shame I never got to know your feistier side. I imagine you have quite the sharp tongue. Still, considering all the work I had to do, it was essential that you be subdued." He actually turned to face her finally, and it was easier than ever to see that his face was seriously lacking in wrinkles. "Now, I have to imagine you have several questions for me, so I'll keep this short. You were taken in because it was convenient. You were kept because you responded well to the treatment. After my first few successes, the president insisted I continue." He went to another nearby machine and continued to work, apparently unbothered by all the guests. "I'm afraid there is not a single romantic thing in your entire sordid tale. Not even your 'escape', which I organized because I had new projects to get to. Your door was open, the guards were on a skeleton crew, blah blah blah."

It was the flippant attitude that really caused Max's chest to tighten and her heart to crack. "But... you sent Victoria and others after me!"

"Yes, Mr. Prescott was quite insistent about that particular order. I believe he saw in her something of a rival, and if the two of you tore one another to pieces... Two birds with one stone and all. After she ended up getting turned to your side, word reached the president and he insisted that something be done, against my own warnings. And now here we are. You've assembled your little army and come beating down my door. All to find out there are no satisfying answers whatsoever."

Chloe launched herself Jefferson, slamming him against the wall with her arm against his neck. She pointed her shotgun at his head and growled. "You son of a bitch! How can you stand there and calmly talk about using another person like that? I ought to blow your fucking head off!"

There was a blur, and suddenly Chloe was pushed away from Jefferson, the shotgun in his hand instead. "You won't get the chance." He pointed down and pulled the trigger. Max didn't have the stomach to see what the exact damage was, but Chloe suddenly dropped to the ground crying out in agony. Just like that, Jefferson tossed the shotgun to the ground and turned back to what he was working on.

Kate quickly dropped to her knees to help, doing whatever she could to hold back the bloodflow. "What the hell are you?"

"Human. But arguably more human than any human has ever been before. You see, that is why my attention has turned away from all my tinkering with your friend here. I am focused on grander things." He glanced briefly down at Kate. "You're not the only one personally affected by Zephyr's attempts at biotech, Miss Marsh. Augmentations don't work for me. I grew obsessed with finding some way to improve humanity through some method other than strapping a few toasters to limbs. Genetic modification. And I've done just that. Time was obviously growing short for my experience here with Zephyr, thus I had to use myself for all my experiments. Now... I know that your friend there is recording. So please, witness my ascension to the next phase of human evolution. Let the whole world see it." He lifted up a large object from the table, some kind of pressurized hypodermic injector, and immediately jammed it into his neck.

Everyone else in the room stepped back – except for Chloe, who was at least attempting to shuffle away – expecting the worst in that moment.

Jefferson's skin began to bubble in a few spots, groans and grunts emerging from the center of his chest. And just like that... he melted. Completely. No bones or muscle or organs. Just a pile of flesh, lying there and doing nothing. For a moment, everything in the room was silent before Chloe finally broke it. "Uh... hey, _fuck_ , so I'm real glad that this issue is kind of dealt with but um... _fuck_. Can someone look around for a med kit? So I don't die?"

Max volunteered to go hunting for that while Kate kept an eye on her. Dana glanced around, zeroing in on a nearby work terminal. "I might be able to do something with this, get a little more information..."

Clicking her tongue, Victoria shook her head, hoisting up her gun and looking back down the hallway. "Just grab the whole core. I don't want to be in this lab any longer than we have to."

"We can agree on that." As she grabbed up a nearby emergency kit, Max became aware of the fact that she was purposefully cutting a wide arc around the door leading to her old cell. "The sooner, the better." She gave the kit to Kate who quickly got to work delivering some adrenaline to her girlfriend and patching her incredibly nasty wound. Everyone had mostly turned their attention on looking after Chloe, soVictoria was the only one to notice something extra troubling.

"Our timetable just got bumped up. We need to move. _Now_."

Max glanced over her shoulder, then followed her line of sight to where Jefferson had melted onto the floor. Only he wasn't just a puddle anymore. The horrifying substance was starting to grow like some kind of tumor. Not wanting to drag this situation out any further, Max immediately picked Chloe up in her arms and started backing away toward the door. "Just this once, I'm legitimately thankful for these new muscles."

"My hero..." Chloe muttered through clenched teeth as they rushed down the hallway.

She didn't really have the courage to look behind her, but Dana was apparently bringing up the back end of the party and had turned to glance at the horror's progress. "Just um-! Just keep moving! And I'm very serious, do not look back! It's... bad."

"Don't bother with the elevator, that thing will take way too long. Come on!" Without missing a beat, Victoria quickly zeroed in on a nearby panel, hitting a few buttons and revealing another door. Beyond was a set of stairs. She motioned with her arm, ushering everyone past her and upward. The sound of her rifle firing off several times followed them up the stairwell, followed by some soft cursing. "Doesn't even _do_ anything to the fucker. He just absorbs the impact... Jesus, he's size of a truck!"

At the top of the stairs, Kate followed the same pattern of inputs and got the top door open, ushering everyone through.

"Max, there you are! This monster has been barking up a storm and... holy shit what happened to Chloe?" Mina was likely about to give more of an accurate sitrep, but she was cut short by the sight of the other woman's bloody leg.

"Yeah, unfortunately we need to get the hell out of here. Then we can fill each other in on what's going on."

No one immediately listened to her, instead looking between Kate and Daniel. "You heard the woman!" Kate added with surprising authority in her voice. That was all it took to get everyone moving again toward the doors. But the retreat didn't last very long. The piece of wall where the elevator hid suddenly burst open and the massive pile of flesh came creeping out through all the crevices and holes. It was a hideous sight, but one that Max wasn't really able to focus on too much while attempting to carry Chloe to safety.

The only good news was that they were in greater numbers now. Once again, they all began to open fire on the monster that used to be Jefferson. But just as Victoria said, it seemed to be completely pointless. There was no piercing or destruction, it just kept absorbing every blow, always advancing.

"Mina, I think it's time we try that secret weapon you've been developing," Daniel advised.

She seemed hesitant to agree, though she did still proceed to heft a large cannon of some kind onto her shoulder. "It's not uh... exactly fully tested yet..."

Kate cast a sidelong glance at her. "Will it hurt any of us in the process?"

"Not as long as you all are far enough away. Just get outside the building. I'll take care of the rest!" No one needed to be told twice. The only advantage they had over the monster was that it didn't seem to be moving particularly fast. Once the crew had made it past the door, Mina fired up the weapon on her shoulder, which started to emit a thrumming hum. It took some time to warm up, but finally she was able to pull the trigger, firing off an immense beam of energy. It struck the creature, blooming with a blinding light that engulfed it completely.

When the light faded, it revealed a husk covered in a fine layer of burnt crust. Everyone cheered, including Chloe.

But it was a little too soon for celebration. Piece by piece, the crust crumbled away and not-Jefferson started his march once again.

"Max, if we don't make it out of this... I always thought you were a huge dork..." Chloe coughed pathetically, and Max hugged her a little closer.

"Don't talk like that, jerk. We're going to be fine. We just... We have to... do... something..."

Brooke cleared her throat softly and stepped forward. "Okay, first, you two stop being ridiculous. Second, I've got this. I can at least do something to buy us some time."

"Don't you dare! You've been-" Mina attempted to stop her, but Brooke was quick to cut her off.

"I can build another drone. I can't build more friends. You guys are all I have. So get back, and let me do this." She readied her controller like it was a weapon. The drone came around, hovering above them as she made a few adjustments. "Control for blast radius... Set timer... Ugh, I hate to do this. I'm gonna miss you little buddy." She glanced around her just to make sure that everyone else had actually put some distance between themselves and the building.

"Did she just say 'blast radius'?" Victoria asked nervously.

No one had time to reply. Jefferson was getting closer to the exit, and closer to taking his rage out on the city. The drone suddenly lunged forward, expanding a pair of blades along the wings. It struck the outer layer of goopy flesh with an incredibly upsetting noise, actually managing to dig its way inside. A moment later, there was a muffled blast. Its flesh started bubbling outward in a series of flares, followed by a more explosive finale, sending pieces of it flying in every direction, destroying a good chunk of the warehouse in turn.

Whatever the aftermath of the attack was, Max didn't see it. Her body and electronics both reached their threshold, and she slumped back against Ares as unconsciousness claimed her.


	13. Chapter 13

Max awoke feeling sluggish and confused. She had been... There was... The warehouse!

She shot upright and looked around herself, shocked to see that she was in the clinic back at the Lighthouse. "What?"

"Easy there, Max..." Taylor appeared from behind a curtain and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "You passed out and missed a lot. It's going to take a second, but I promise that everything is fine. Mostly. But before we can get to that, here..." She passed her a glass of water and urged her to drink it carefully. "Um, also your uh... your new friend is hovering? And he's very large and like... maybe you can make him not do that?"

She carefully turned her head, and sure enough Ares was waiting there curled up next to her clinic bed. "Ohhh, hey buddy. I can't tell you how happy I am to see that you're still around, and that you're looking after me. But Taylor here has a lot of work to do and... I mean, she's not wrong, you take up a lot of space. Could you maybe go wait out in the lobby? There will be lots of room and you can stretch out. I'm sure someone will check up on you. Okay?" Ares actually listened to her once again, idly padding his way out of the clinic and into the rest of the base. Max looked back at the woman with a bashful laugh. "Sorry, I know he presents a whole new set of issues for everyone, but I couldn't leave him behind..."

Taylor just shrugged it off and motioned to the glass of water once again. "It's alright, I think that's sort of how Victoria met me. Just recognizing a kindred soul and immediately connecting." She laughed, easing some of the tension in the room, at least a little. "So uh... Let me see, you passed out just after the earth-shattering kaboom. Juliet and Court had been doing their job and I guess word got back to Zephyr HQ pretty damn fast. Shortly after the entire area was splattered with liquefied human, a whole new crew of security goons rolled up on us. It looked like we might actually get taken down, but then word came down from the president. News outlets were already reaching out to him and the writing was on the wall. Eliminating us would only make them look even worse. Polaris was given a full pardon, with a promise of further collaboration." She sighed and took a seat in a nearby chair. "Not that we fully expect them to follow through on that. But with the press and the feds beating down their door, they may not have much choice."

"Wow..." Max was stunned, and couldn't think of much else to say, so she just sipped quietly at her water.

The doctor nodded her head. "Everyone seems to be doing alright, mostly just a little shaken by that whole... ugh, thing. It was horrifying, and after Brooke sacrificed her drone, I was honestly expecting him to merge back together. Like something out of an old movie or whatever. Um, Chloe though..."

"Is she alright? Oh god... her leg... I-It's all my fault. I should have known she would make a run at Jeffer-"

Taylor was quick to rise and meet her, placing a calming hand on her shoulder. "She's in the hospital. She's going to be alright, but she'll likely have a shiny new leg when she gets out. And really, Max, you shouldn't blame yourself. Chloe has been her own woman from day one. Even if you had mysterious time-travel powers, you couldn't have stopped her from doing what she did. Now, I believe there's somebody who has been chomping at the bit to see you." She moved toward the door, quickly crossing paths with Victoria as she entered. "You make a mess in my med bay, you better clean it up..."

Victoria attempted to scowl at her, but couldn't maintain it for long before breaking out in a big smile. She strolled across the room, planting a hand on Max's cheek and kissing her softly. "You're okay~"

"Of course I'm okay. I'm super tough, and very badass."

Helping her confidence exactly zero, Victoria laughed at that and kissed her again, slower this time. "You're a dork is what you are. How do you feel?"

"Still a bit groggy. I can't believe I passed out like that..." She took another hearty swig of her water, hoping it might magically fix her. "Some hero I am."

Nudging her aside, Victoria carefully sat down next to her on the bed. She rubbed her back slowly with a more charming, warm smile. "I mean, you're not exactly a hero, remember? You're just... Max. An artist. And a real sweetheart. So don't sweat it too hard. You did a lot more than anybody would have expected of you. And with everyone together, we did some pretty great stuff."

Max was honestly shocked by how hard Victoria hit the nail on the head. Finally she cracked a smile and looked over at her. "Hm. You're right. I guess I did do alright, huh?"

The hand slowly stopped rubbing her back, and then Victoria wrapped around her shoulder, nuzzling into her lightly. "You need more rest. Chloe's still in surgery, Kate's looking after your new pet. And... well, I'll be here when you wake up."

* * *

The redwood forest was just as beautiful as Max had always been told. Sure, maybe they were a little smaller than they used to be, but enough of them had been left untouched for visitors to feel that sense of wonder. Trees so big around, you could barely comprehend it.

Of course, it went much deeper than that. There was no conspiracy anymore. No hiding, no fighting, no disguises. She was just holding hands with Victoria and enjoying a quiet day with Chloe and Kate. Her friend might have had a new aug where her leg had been amputated, but she showed almost no worries about it. She lovingly referred to it as her 'pegleg'.

This was ultimately not a true vacation, just a couple days of proper rest. There was far too much happening back in Arcadia. But even a bit of fresh air and a new perspective was enough to invigorate you. "I still don't get it, is that seriously what the feds told you?" Max picked up a massive branch and hurled it further into the forest, watching in admiration as Apollo went charging after it – 'Ares' felt like too aggressive of a name, so they changed it. He seemed content with either.

"Polaris is basically a goldmine for those lazy bast-"

Kate cleared her throat and cut Chloe off before she could get on a political rant. "Zephyr running its own city was a gigantic risk for everyone involved. And it worked for long enough that everyone was getting complacent. Just in time for things to completely implode. And since Polaris has been there for quite some time, willing to take responsibility... Well, they're basically shoving all the rubble into our hands and saying 'You fix it then'." As much as there was some serious good news in there, she still looked a bit sad. "It's not ideal, obviously. We have to decide what's going to happen to Zephyr, which means deciding how many people get to keep their jobs, if the company will keep making androids, and... Just so many other things."

Apollo came bounding back up, this time offering the hefty branch to Chloe. Quickly realizing it was heavier than it looked, she passed it back to Max so that she could toss it again. "Honestly, Angel, it's going to be fine. I mean, it won't be perfect. Nothing is perfect. But you and Danny boy and the nerd twins and everyone all trying to make Arcadia a legitimately better place? No matter what, it's going to be preferable to the shit show we had before."

"I think it's safe to say at this point that you have us as well..." Victoria added, looking toward Max for confirmation. She quickly nodded with a bright smile. Sure, they didn't get a full, proper rest, but there was work to be done. And this was far better than all of that cloak and dagger stuff. "Someone has to help with all the interrogations, and Max is going to help with the investigation."

"Yeah. I think at this point, I can live without perfection."

Victoria got an incredibly playful smirk on her face, watching as Max threw the branch yet again. Apollo really did have an infinite supply of energy. "What are you talking about? You live with me, you live with perfection!"

"And you call me a dork..." Max mused, pushing up onto her toes and kissing Victoria deeply on the lips. She was vaguely aware of Chloe and Kate somewhere in her peripheral vision. The former was gagging, the latter was cooing.

 _Okay. Maybe this is perfection._


End file.
